Chennai: Arrests of protesting NULM contract workers continue

CHENNAI: The contract workers hired under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) in the city continue to face repeated detentions as they persist with their plea for reinstatement, after being denied work since August 1. Thursday marked the 77th day of their protest.

Their ongoing efforts to meet civic and state representatives, including the mayor, councillors, zonal officers, and MLAs, have repeatedly ended in arrests. Their latest attempt to meet all 234 MLAs during the ongoing Assembly session on October 16 was also contained by the police. The workers who went to submit petitions near Omandurar Estate, where they had planned a demonstration, were detained.

The workers from Zones 5 and 6 say they have been surviving without wages for more than two months. "We worked even during the pandemic for public health. Now, as the monsoon nears, we only ask to be reinstated," said one of them. "We are not even protesting. Why can't the government just hear our plea?"

Earlier, on October 14, groups of NULM workers held sit-in demonstrations outside ward offices across ten divisions in Zone 5, urging councillors to intervene, but were again detained by the police.

According to the workers, their services were "illegally terminated" despite years of continuous work. In a petition to the Mayor and the Corporation Commissioner, they demanded that they be reinstated in their positions as of July 31, and their employment regularised, referring to the Chief Minister's 2021 directive and election promises (Nos. 153 and 285) to make sanitation jobs permanent.

Responding to questions from the press, Mayor Priya said the city currently has "enough conservancy workers" to meet operational needs; however, she added that "the door remains open for workers of Zones 5 and 6 to return to work."