Refuse Evacuators Demand Better Pay

Workers of waste dis

posal companies in Rivers State have accused their employees of ill-treatment and poor-remunerations.

Some of the workers who spoke to our correspondent unanimously alleged that the state government pays the contractors sufficiently to take adequate care of the workers but the contractors pay the workers meagerly and keep the balance for themselves.

“I know how much the state government pays the contractors for each of us but instead of paying us well, they give us peanuts. They use our money to buy cars and build houses”, one of the workers alleged.

He said the job of evacuating refuse exposes them to all kinds of health problems and so they should be paid heavily instead of being treated “like beggars and lesser citizens”, by all and sundry.

Another worker lamented that  he spend all the paltry salary on hospital bills as he frequently fell sick due to the health hazards the job exposed him to.

He advised government to set up a committee to monitor the contractors and ensure that they pay their workers as expected.

“Unless a committee is set up by government to monitor how these contractors handle their workers, they will continue to grow fact with our money while we that are always outside working under the rain and in the sun continue to grow lean”, he said.

The supervisor Bond Global Resources, Mr. Omoh Brunor corroborated the allegations by the workers. He said some of the contractors came less about their workers welfare and that affects the workers” productivity.

Omoh whose company is in charge of evacuating refuse from UBA Ikwerre Road to Education Bus Stop observed that the reason why there were refuse heaps at some parts of the state was that some of the contractors handling such areas were not competent.

He advised that government should either be directly involved in the refuse disposal task or give the contract to capable contractors that have all it takes to handle the job efficiently so that the desired results would be achieved.

Calista Ezeaku