Sanitation workers hold their breath

Sanitation workers hold their breath

Two sanitation workers put waste into a garbage truck in HCM City's District 3. At least 1,800 local sanitation workers have not been paid for five months due to a delay in legal procedures. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Phan

HCM CITY (VNS) — HCM City authority has demanded agencies pay for their sanitation services so that thousands of sanitation workers in the city can get their wages.

The request was made after the HCM City Urban Environment One Member Co, Ltd (CITENCO) sent a petition to the committee and the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment about its contracts for supplying sanitation services.

CITENCO and the department have signed a contract to provide basic services such as collecting and dumping garbage.

In the past five months, the company has provided services worth more than VND300 billion (US$14.2 million). However, it has not received any payments.

The delay has seriously affected the enterprise and at least 1,800 sanitation workers have not been paid for five months.

The department said that legal procedures were holding up payments.It said it had not yet been authorised to sign the contract with the company. Thus, there was no legal basis for the department to pay the costs.

To solve the problem, the municipal People’s Commmittee deputy chairman Nguyen Huu Tin has agreed to authorise the department to sign the contract with the company.

He also asked the department to hire an experienced consultancy unit to bid for collecting and transporting garbage from 2015-20.

Currently, about 7,500 tonnes of garbage is produced in HCM City daily. — VNS

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