Sanitary workers staging a demonstration in Salem on Wednesday. — Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

Conservancy works suffered a jolt on Wednesday in 21 wards of Salem Corporation where the works had been outsourced following a strike by the workers who demanded hike in their daily wages.

The workers attached to the Bangalore-based private firm SRV, which had taken up the works in the city claimed that despite their demands, the wages had not been raised.

They said that they had been pressurised to work twice a day. But their wages were meagre for the workload they had been forced to do.

Hence on Wednesday, they struck work and staged a demonstration in front of the office of Salem Corporation. They insisted that unless they were paid a sum of Rs. 150 per day per head, they would not be able to work. Later, officials from the firm came and held talks with them.

Meanwhile, for the past two days the sanitary works in the wards allotted to the private firm remained affected.

Officials in Salem Corporation said that the situation would improve.

Source: THE HINDU