The Tamil Nadu sanitary workers and overhead tank operators, functioning in over 12,000 villages in the state, have threatened to go on indefinite strike, if the government does not implement their charter of demands. The decision was announced in a meeting of the Federation of Local Body Employees Union, affiliated to CITU, on 17 April 2008. The main demand of the union is to get the workers a minimum monthly salary of Rs 3,000 and to get it disbursed to them on the fifth day of every month. Other demands of the union included kits to carry out their work; free house site pattas and cleaning allowance of Rs 300 every month.

The sanitary workers in Tamil Nadu are not entitled to a salary; instead, they are paid a meagre amount of Rs 500 as consolidated amount. Besides, they are not entitled to any medical facilities and gratuity. Although these workers work for over 10 hours a day, they do not have any fixed time schedule and rules for work.

According the union, in Tamil Nadu, there were around 75,000 sanitary workers and overhead tank operators working in 12,618 panchayats. The exact date of strike will be announced after monitoring the government`s response to the strike notice.