CHENNAI: Nearly 150 days after cleanliness workers were forcibly detained by police during a protest at the Ripon Building, a section of workers continues to agitate against the privatisation of their jobs, with yet another protest rally announced for December 27.

Cleanliness workers from Zone 5 (Royapuram) and Zone 6 (Thiru Vi Ka Nagar) have been on an indefinite fasting protest since November at the Ambattur office of the Ulaippor Urimai Iyakkam (UUI). The protest is being conducted in phases, with workers taking turns to observe the fast.

The first group of four women workers fasted for 25 days, followed by another group of women who continued the protest for a similar period. On December 25, the third set of women protesters, Velankanni and Kalpana, both in their 30s, were admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital after their health deteriorated following 25 consecutive days of fasting.

After this, four more women workers — Periyanayagi, Reeta, Lakshmi and Nagalakshmi — have begun an indefinite fasting protest.

“Either take us back under our existing NULM contract or put us in jail. We will continue protesting and do whatever it takes to get our jobs back,” said one of the protesters.

Advocate K Bharathi, president of the UUI, said cleanliness workers were questioning the unequal response to protests by different categories of workers. “We are not against anyone. When the protest by contract nurses was heard and the government announced that their jobs would be regularised, why can’t the same be done for sanitation workers?” he asked.

He added that the organisation would once again hold a protest rally on December 27 to press their demands.

Stating that cleanliness workers deserve equal rights as nurses, the outfit has announced a protest rally on Saturday to press their demands