UP sanitation workers’ union seeks ₹20,000 monthly pay for outsourced staff

The Local Bodies Sanitation Workers Union (U.P.) has written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seeking the immediate issuance of a departmental order to ensure that outsourced sanitation workers are paid 20,000 rupees per month.

The demand was conveyed through a letter addressed to the Chief Minister. State spokesperson Ajay Rajwar said the letter was written by the union’s provincial president, Maniklal Nagar, on 30 October 2026. The letter bears the number ENSKS/2026/06/125.

According to the letter, the Chief Minister had announced during the budget session of 2025 that outsourced sanitation workers would be paid 20,000 rupees per month. Subsequently, a proposal to establish the Outsourced Services Corporation was passed at a Cabinet meeting held on 19 September 2025.

On the same day, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna and Urban Development Minister A.K. Sharma said during a joint press conference that the “dictatorship of companies” would now end and that employees would receive all facilities through the Services Corporation.

The union’s letter also referred to a government order issued with the signature of Chief Secretary Amit Kumar Ghosh. It said the manual of the corporation was clearly laid out in the order and that employees had been placed in four categories.

The letter said sanitation workers had again been placed in the category of highly specialised service and that an order had been issued for them to receive a salary of 20,000 rupees. However, the union alleged that municipal commissioners and officials did not accept or implement the order.

The union further said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced the website or portal of the Outsourced Services Corporation and other facilities on 2 September 2026. Despite the announcement, the working system of the Services Corporation has still not become clear, the union said.

According to the union, the Chief Minister had made another announcement while flagging off a vehicle in Lucknow. He had said that outsourced employees would receive a salary of 20,000 rupees and arrears for the month of September before Diwali.

Union president Maniklal Nagar said salaries were being prepared in local bodies on the occasion of Diwali, but they were still being calculated at the old rates. He said the state government’s Services Corporation had not yet issued any departmental order for payment of 20,000 rupees per month.

This has caused deep disappointment among the employees, Nagar said.

The union has made a request to the Chief Minister to ensure that the departmental order for payment of arrears and the increased salary is issued soon, before Diwali.