Madras High Court refuses to quash Greater Chennai Corporation resolutions for outsourcing conservancy work

The Madras High Court on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) refused to quash the resolutions passed by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to outsource conservancy work in Zones V (Royapuram) and VI (Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar). However, it directed the Corporation to negotiate with the private employer to ensure that the temporary workers receive their last-drawn wages or more.

Justice K. Surender passed the orders while disposing of two writ petitions filed by Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam, challenging the two GCC Council resolutions. The judge said, the question of retrenchment of conservancy workers would not arise at all, as argued by the petitioner organisation, since their services had not been terminated and they would be absorbed by the private employer.

The cases had been filed fearing that the monthly wages of the workers would get reduced considerably if they get absorbed by Telangana-based Delhi MSW Solutions Limited, which had bagged the contract for sanitary work in the two zones. However, in his counter affidavit, GCC Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran had asserted that the workers would actually get paid more by the private employer.

In a detailed counter affidavit, the Commissioner had stated that the outsourcing of conservancy work to private concessionaires was not new, and it had already been done in 11 out of 15 zones in the Corporation over the years. In all those zones, the concessionaires had absorbed the self-help group (SHG) temporary workers serving the Corporation as conservancy workers.

Stating that 975 temporary conservancy workers were serving in Zone V and that 1,059 of them were working in Zone VI before the work was outsourced to Delhi MSW Solutions Limited, the Commissioner said, the private contractor had floated a special purpose vehicle called Chennai Enviro Solutions Private Limited and had begun absorbing those temporary workers.

He also said the private entity requires 3,809 workers and it had already recruited 1,770 of them, besides wanting to absorb 2,034 SHG workers on a priority basis. He stated around 275 SHG workers had already been absorbed and joined duty too, and the company was willing to offer a welcome bonus of ₹3,000 per employee, as a goodwill measure, to all those who join till August 31, 2025.

“The second respondent [Delhi MSW Solutions] is issuing appointment orders to the workers with a higher pay than the Greater Chennai Corporation,” the Commissioner asserted. He said the cost to company to be incurred by the private entity for every worker was ₹20,136 per month and that they would receive a net salary of ₹15,357 per month apart from several other service benefits.

He said, the employees would be entitled to group personal accident insurance for ₹11.52 lakh, group term life insurance for ₹1 lakh, employees deposit linked scheme for ₹3 lakh, and ₹2.015 lakh for accidental death and ₹55,000 for natural death. Further, they would get 12 days of casual leave, 12 days of earned leave, double wages if they work on national holidays and marriage assistance of ₹20,000 for either self or children’s marriage.

It was also brought to the notice of the court that Delhi MSW Solutions would issue appointment orders to every individual worker in to ensure job security and implementation of all applicable labour welfare laws.