ADW & TW sanitation workers seek salary hike

CHENNAI: The sanitation workers of Adi Dravidar Welfare and Tribal Welfare departments working as maintenance staff in schools allege that they have been receiving a meagre salary for several decades and urge revision before outsourcing the work like the school education department.

Cleanliness of schools, especially in government-run schools and basic infrastructure has always been a cause of concern for children studying there. However, to address this, the education department has announced outsourcing the school maintenance works to a third party.

But, reacting to the new initiative, the workers sought the department to fulfill the demands by the staff with the ADW and Tribal Welfare departments at the earliest.

With the motive to reduce the expenditure of appointing regular staff and salary revision of the employees every year, the education department from 2021 had been pondering on outsourcing the sanitation and gatekeeping works to a third party by floating a tender.

Though the work in 2021 was halted, the education department recently confirmed outsourcing the work and assured that the present staff will be allowed to finish their tenure till the retirement age.

But, the workers with the ADW and Tribal Welfare departments who already feel neglected due to low salaries compared to staff of the education department are urged to address their demands.

Speaking to DT Next, a sanitation worker in Aathur said,”My initial salary in 2012 was just Rs 2,000. This was revised to Rs 3,000 in 2016. Followed by this, by revising the pay scale, the salary was further hiked to Rs 6,000 in 2020. Yet, this is alarmingly lower than the sanitation workers of the education department.” “Though the salaries of staff in both the departments are lower, the discrimination against those working in ADW and TW is more evident.”

The department has announced outsourcing the school maintenance works to a third party