Overview
- In a Tuesday interview, the VCK leader said mechanising garbage disposal is more important than granting permanency, while maintaining he supports workers’ demands.
- He argued that locking Dalit workers into permanent sanitation roles reinforces caste-based occupations and urged adoption of technology to replace manual tasks.
- CPI(M) condemned the position, calling permanency a legitimate legal demand, citing the 240-day rule for regularisation and examples of upward mobility enabled by secure public jobs.
- The remarks follow protests by NULM workers against outsourcing in Zones 5 and 6, with warnings that take-home pay could fall from about Rs 23,000 to around Rs 15,000 even with PF and ESI.
- Thirumavalavan said he engaged with protesters and met the Chief Minister and ministers, adding the government resisted permanency as a policy decision and that police ended the sit-in after a Madras High Court order.