Haryana sanitation workers’ strike completes one month, govt orders emergency tenders
Local Bodies Minister Vipul Goel says Haryana government had done its best for sanitation workers but could not allow citizens to suffer indefinitely because of the impasse
As Haryana’s statewide sanitation workers’ strike completed one month on Saturday, the government directed all municipal corporations (MCs) across the state to float emergency tenders and bring in a fresh outsourced workforce, amid reports of clashes between striking sanitation staff and outsourced workers deployed to keep civic services running.
Local Bodies Minister Vipul Goel, speaking to The Tribune, said the government had done its best for sanitation workers but could not allow citizens to suffer indefinitely because of the impasse.
He said all MCs, including those in Gurugram and Faridabad, had been asked to move forward with emergency tenders to bring in a new outsourced sanitation force. He said the government would ensure that no strike was allowed to hold civic services to ransom going forward, and that nothing should be allowed to derail sanitation operations in the state, particularly in Gurugram and Faridabad.
“The government has done more than it could for sanitation workers, yet they continue to hold the state to ransom. They are attacking alternative workers; police and citizens are suffering. Not anymore. We respect their right to protest, but will go ahead with emergency arrangements and also have enough outsourced force so that this annual blackmail stops,” said Goel.
The strike, which began over unmet demands under a May 13 agreement between the government and sanitation unions, has now stretched to a month, with tensions escalating on the ground as outsourced workers brought in as stopgap staff clashed with protesting employees at multiple locations, according to reports from the field.
In Gurugram, 26 sanitation, sewer and fire employees from the Municipal Corporations of Gurugram and Manesar, along with employees of the municipal councils of Sohna, Pataudi, Heli Mandi and Farrukhnagar, shaved their heads outside the old municipal corporation office over the weekend, protesting what they called the government’s “anti-employee policies”.
They later marched to the Civil Lines residence of Cabinet Minister and Badshahpur MLA Rao Narbir Singh, demanding the withdrawal of suspension and termination orders issued against several workers and action over what they described as the “wrongful” arrests of protesters.
Union leaders, including Basanta Kumar, state vice-president of the Municipal Employees Union and president of its Gurugram unit, alleged that the government had failed to issue written orders on the 17-point charter of demands despite verbal assurances during negotiations.
The demands reportedly include ending the contract system in sanitation and sewer work, regularisation of contractual employees, recruitment against regular posts and various service benefits.
In Faridabad, hundreds of striking workers gathered outside Goel’s Sector 16 office over the weekend. Police said the protest, involving around 100 participants, remained peaceful and was cleared without incident, with no FIR registered.
The government has claimed that at least 13 of the 17 demands have been accepted in principle, with regularisation still pending “due to legal considerations”.
It has also announced a wage and benefits package for the state’s 13,093 sanitation workers on municipal rolls, bringing them under the Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Act, 2024, with job security until the age of 60, a Rs 2,000 monthly risk allowance and a 15 per cent wage top-up.
Despite the package, unions have signalled that they will continue the agitation until the May 13 agreement is fully implemented in writing, setting up a standoff even as the state moves to insulate civic operations through outsourcing.
