The Madras High Court on Wednesday declined to halt the Greater Chennai Corporation from privatising sanitation work in two zones of the city.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a sanitation worker challenging the municipal corporation’s decision to outsource the task to a private agency for a contract worth Rs 276 crore.

A bench of Justice K Surender held that the matter was a policy decision of the government and that it cannot be quashed as it did not violate any law or constitutional provisions.

“In any democracy, it is the prerogative of the elected government to follow its own policy unless any illegality is committed in execution of the policy or such policy is contrary to the law or mala fide,” the court noted.

However, the court directed the state to negotiate with the private agency and ensure that the workers are paid the final wages.

The court also noted that the company was not extending a favour to the workers by employing them as they were “already trained and working since several years for the GCC”.

The petitioner K Bharathi, president of the labour rights group Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam, argued that transferring workers from the corporation to a private agency without the consent of the workers’ union and while an industrial dispute was pending amounted to retrenchment under Section 25N of the Industrial Disputes Act, The New Indian Express reported.

He claimed that the new arrangement risked the livelihood of nearly 2,000 contract workers and said that the salary offered by the private company was below the minimum wage, Live Law reported.

In response, the Tamil Nadu government and the private company told the court that no jobs were being terminated, and the interest of sanitation workers would be safeguarded.

The privatisation was aimed to improve sanitation and solid waste management in the city, they added.

A protest by sanitation workers led by the Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam, which began on August 1, was disrupted on August 13 when the police arrested union leaders and workers, The New Indian Express reported.

This came after the High Court barred demonstrations near the headquarters of the Greater Chennai Corporation without permission. The court said that protests could be held at designated venues.

The workers had launched the protest fearing that their wages would drop from about Rs 23,000 per month under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission to about Rs 15,000 per month under the private agency.

They argued that while the private agency would offer social security schemes, the take-home pay would be significantly reduced, making it harder to meet living costs, The News Minute reported.

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