Metrowater union members take out rally seeking permanent jobs, better wages

CMWSSB Labourers' Union demands permanent jobs, wage increase, and other benefits, threatening indefinite strike if demands not met.

Members of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) Labourers’ Union took out a rally on Monday seeking permanent jobs and increase in wages. They plan to go on an indefinite strike later in the month if their demands are not met.

This is the third such protest organised by the union in the last three months. The contract workers held placards on their demands and covered a few streets in Pudupet and Chintadripet. Some of them were accompanied by their family members.

Members said about 2,850 people were working as contract labourers in water and sewer infrastructure maintenance for minimal wages.

G. Beem Rao, the union’s president and former Maduravoyal MLA, said the contract workers now earned an average monthly salary of ₹15,000 to ₹21,000. “We have been fighting for job security for many years now. We want the government to fix a minimum monthly wage of ₹26,000 for the labourers. Those labourers with work experience of three to 15 years must be given permanent jobs,” he said.

Some of the union’s other demands are permanent jobs for 17 workers who were directly employed by the CMWSSB in Alandur. Though they were assured of job orders in March, they were yet to be given. Implementation of the old pension scheme for CMWSSB employees and the use of the agency’s vacant plots in areas such as Koyambedu, Besant Nagar, and Ekkatuthangal to construct community halls or workers’ quarters and prevent encroachments.

Noting that the march could not proceed towards the Secretariat, Mr. Rao said the charter of demands was submitted to officials in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department.