'At least they can protest': Chennai's private contract workers
Over-worked, underpaid and often threatened with termination, workers of private contractors narrate their ordeal
CHENNAI: This is a job where asking for leave risks your livelihood. A workforce of 15-20 now handles what once required double their number.
“At least they can protest,” said Raguram (name changed), who fiercely protested in 2020 when his zone was privatised. Five years on, former NULM workers like him reveal what life under private contractors really means.
Since the mid-2010s, Chennai’s sanitation workforce has transformed deeply. Chennai’s once fully permanent sanitation workforce has steadily given way, first to NULM's temporary daily-wage staff, and now to contract workers employed through private contractors, a shift driven by cost-cutting policies.
The State government implemented the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) contracts in 2014-15 to create urban livelihood opportunities while trimming the Corporation’s wage bill. This began a steady erosion of permanent jobs, accompanied by privatisation.
Today, only a few areas like half of Ambattur, Tondiarpet and Anna Nagar remain fully staffed by permanent GCC employees. Of the total 15 zones, 12 had private firms managing the waste.
The tires of the workforce – GCC permanent staff, NULM contract workers, and private contractor employees. Each step down brings lower pay, less job security, and fewer rights. Zones 5 (Royapuram) and 6 (Thiru Vi Ka Nagar) have already been handed over to Chennai Enviro; the workers’ protest hangs in this history of privatisation.
As widely reported, the protest by NULM workers is mainly due to the major blow that comes in salary. It’s Rs 23,000 for a NULM worker vs Rs 16,000 when they work under a private contractor. There have been numerous protests over the past decades against privatisation and demanding permanent job status.
“We could have been earning the same if we had succeeded in the protest at that time,” said Raguram. “The pay a NULM worker currently draws came after years of persistent protest and negotiation.”
While they are still demanding permanency, they have now been stripped of the NULM scheme itself, pushed instead to private contractors, a status no one wants, even private contract workers. “Ask a leave, report a grievance, the first thing they say is, ‘then leave the job’,” lamented Janaki (name changed), who has been working as a cleanliness worker for 24 years.
The variation in pay also arises due to the base pay not being increased for the past 8 years. Under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, sanitation work for a local authority is a “scheduled employment”. This means the State government is mandated to fix a base minimum wage and revise it at least once every five years.
In Tamil Nadu, the last revision was in 2017, fixing it at Rs 13,000/month for unskilled employees and Rs 16,000 for skilled. For workers, this is insufficient compared to rising living costs and, most importantly, increased workload.
Almost every worker DT Next spoke to has explained the ordeal of workload under a private contractor. “A ward that was covered by at least 100 workers is reduced to mere 32, of which only 12 are sweepers,” pointed out a worker.
This was echoed by others too. “There were 45-50 workers in a division before privatisation, now it’s 15,” lamented a 50-plus-year-old woman. “Sweeping 12 streets daily has numbed my senses.”
“It takes a lot to put our own hands into a waste bin that has worms with torn gloves, and yet, complete the work. When we ask for a new pair of gloves, it’s turned down,” a worker added.
Workers previously part of NULM and then absorbed by private contractors have an 8-year contract. New joiners get a 3-year contract. However, arbitrary termination can happen anytime if they unionise, try to assert their rights, or even ask grievances, say the workers.
“We want to segregate the waste more meticulously now. It’s a big job. We have to work beyond the stipulated timings but are severely understaffed. Since there are hundreds who want a job, they have an upper hand,” said a worker. “In my zone, around 10-12 workers absorbed from NULM were terminated within a few years.”
For NULM workers protesting now, privatisation represents a slide into these conditions – lower pay, heavier workloads as fewer workers cover the same ground, loss of GCC oversight, and weaker bargaining power. And it gains support from private workers because they say they are now more distant from the ears of the government, more distant than the opportunity to sit outside the Ripon building and protest.
