700 Sanitation Workers & COVID Warriors Fired From Jobs In TN, Some Were Working For 10+ Years

On the eve of Pongal, as many as 700 sanitation workers in Tamil Nadu were fired from their jobs without any communication despite being on frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic for months.

The sanitation workers were sacked by the Greater Chennai Corporation without any notice period on Tuesday, leading to protests by staff.

Per a report in India Today, most of the sanitation workers, who had been COVID warriors for their essential services, had contracted coronavirus.

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However, despite government promises, they did not receive any compensation.

The report adds that many of the employees had been working with the corporation for over a decade.

Essential services during COVID

These COVID warriors went out of their way to help those infected with the novel coronavirus. They said that during the pandemic, when even the families of the infected patients refused to go near them, it was the COVID warriors who assisted the patients.

One sanitation worker said that she had been given the job after her husband died on the same job and that she had worked through both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Cyclone Vardah.

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The incident has caused massive uproar.

#ChennaiCorporation pic.twitter.com/iy746wuZ72

¡ª Kanimozhi (???????) (@KanimozhiDMK) January 12, 2021

DMK MP Kanimozhi lashed out at the Edapadi Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu for the unceremonious termination.

Taking to Twitter, she issued a statement claiming, "Covid warriors are celebrated across the State but the EPS government has decided to terminate the services of 700 sanitary workers in Chennai. Firing them without even notice period, especially when unemployment is rife, is cruel, given we depended on them during the pandemic".