Chennai: Tense moments ensued after a flash protest by more than 50 sanitation workers at the Ripon Building on Tuesday. They entered the civic headquarters, sat on the floor and raised slogans demanding regularisation of their jobs.According to police, the sanitation workers sought permission to stage a peaceful protest near the Allikulam court complex. However, the workers said they had been granted permission to protest but were pushed to a stretch of road that was uneven and riddled with potholes. “They locked the gate and did not allow us inside. Why were we not allowed inside? We had sought permission and had been here since 3pm,” a sanitation worker said.State secretary of Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam (Workers’ Rights Movement), affiliated to LTUC-AICCTU, K Suresh said the workers had gone to meet the chief minister but were directed to minister for school education A Rajmohan’s chamber. “We met the minister and submitted our demands,” he said.In a petition to the chief minister, the workers sought a revision of their salaries, pointing out that the govt had decided to pay ₹25,000 a month to assistants appointed by MLAs to help with public work. They demanded that sanitation workers who have worked for 10–20 years and currently earn around ₹19,000 a month be paid according to the daily wage of ₹832 notified by the Chennai district collector for unskilled workers.Among their other demands were extending one year of maternity leave for a third child, currently available to govt employees, to sanitation workers as well, menstrual leave for workers, improved housing facilities and withdrawal of criminal cases allegedly filed against sanitation workers and their leaders during the 2025 agitation under the previous administration.
