Sanitation workers at the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) have issued a 72-hour notice advising of an intention to withdraw labour services. 

Their union, the National Workers Union (NWU), claims that it has been trying to resolve the issue over the last seven months but NSWMA has not been responding. 

“The management has not seen it important to meet with the workers and the union. …The company’s refusal to meet with the Union and our delegates has resulted in us having no choice,” said a letter dated July 18 and addressed to NSWMA’s executive director, Audley Gordon. 

The letter was signed by Dexroy Martin, the NWU’s assistant island supervisor. 

Ten issues were listed and some of them included: irregular payment of salaries; reduction in working hours; flexi-work arrangement; lack of a pension plan; lack of proper gear and equipment; no compensation for work done out of town and haphazard or preferential treatment to workers injured on the job.

The NSWMA head declined to comment on the letter, saying he was still going through the document. 

But he said a preliminary meeting is being worked on for Monday between senior officials of his office and Martin, before he joins further proposed talks on Tuesday.

“We are very concerned about the points that are raised. We have been addressing a lot of these points,” Gordon said, complaining that the NWU’s letter was sent to him some time after one o’clock Monday morning. 

Gordon, meanwhile, acknowledged that garbage collection islandwide is being hampered by the shortage of trucks. 

“We are running behind in a lot of areas,” he said, noting that trucks scheduled to arrive before the COVID-19 pandemic be added to the fleet over the next 12 months. 

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