Ludhiana: Sanitation contract workers protest, push for job regularisation

Municipal commissioner Neeru Katyal Gupta stated that she has sent the memorandum to the local government department.

The workers announced that they will protest from May 15 to May 17 and warned that they would go on an indefinite strike if their demands are not accepted promptly.

During the protest, the workers handed over a memorandum to the municipal commissioner, Neeru Katyal Gupta, detailing their demands for regularisation, pension restoration, and opposition to outsourcing.

Sanitation workers’ unions staged a protest outside the Zone A office of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation to demand regularisation of contractual sanitation workers. They claimed hundreds have worked on contractual terms for years but have not been regularised. Spokesperson Vicky Sahota argued that contractual workers face no job security and earn about ₹10,000 monthly, while regularised workers earn over ₹16,000 and see pension revisions periodically. The unions cited about 800 workers who have been in service for over a decade and were denied regularisation in 2022 due to an age criterion, stating the administration’s delay should not penalise them. They also criticised outsourcing of waste collection to private firms in 26 wards and questioned the higher pay to outsourced companies (₹1,200/day) compared with ₹300/day for contractual workers. They demanded a return to the old pension scheme and handed over a memorandum to the municipal commissioner, Neeru Katyal Gupta.