Conservancy workers to get same salary until disposal of industrial dispute, Chennai Corporation tells Madras High Court

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Monday (September 1, 2025) informed the Madras High Court that Delhi MSW Solutions Limited, to which conservancy works in zones V (Royapuram) and VI (Thiru.Vi.Ka. Nagar) had been outsourced, had agreed to pay the same salary for absorbed conservancy workers until the disposal of an industrial dispute.

Appearing before a Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and R. Sakthivel, Advocate General P.S. Raman said that Justice K. Surender on August 22, 2025, refused to interfere with GCC resolutions for outsourcing the conservancy work in the two zones as it had been done in the past for other zones.

However, while diposing of two writ petitions filed by Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam, an organisation representing the conservancy workers, the single judge had directed the GCC to enter into negotiations with the concessionaire and ensure that the conservancy workers continued to receive their last-drawn wages and not less.

“The concessionaire has a different wage structure. Therefore, the GCC had a meeting day before yesterday and in the minutes of the meeting, the concessionaire, as a temporary measure, has agreed to pay the same salary as they were getting paid earlier, until the disposal of a dispute pending before an industrial tribunal,” the A-G said.

The A-G also stated that the next hearing of the dispute before the industrial tribunal had been scheduled on September 3, 2025. The submissions were made during the hearing of two writ appeals filed by Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam against the single judge’s August 22, 2025 order refusing to quash the GCC resolutions.

On his part, senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing the concessionaire, said, nearly 800 conservancy workers had not joined duty so far and it had caused immense difficulties in disposing of the accumulated garbage in the two zones. He said that nearly 2,000 tonnes of garbage had to be cleared everyday.

After hearing them as well as the appellant’s counsel S. Kumaraswamy, the Division Bench refused to pass any kind of interim order but for ordering notices to the GCC as well as the concessionaire and deciding to hear the appeals next on October 6, 2025. In the meantime, the judges advised the conservancy workers to join duty.