TAXILA: Scores of sanitary workers, including women, from the Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC) Taxila chapter on Friday observed a complete strike and staged a protest demonstration against non-payment of their salaries for two months.

The protesters held the protest demonstration at Taxila Chowk in the scorching heat and chanted slogans against the company and in support of their demands.

They said around 130 sanitary workers were deployed in the city and they were not paid their dues for two months.
The protesters said they were paid salaries after 15 and 20 of each month which added to their financial woes.

The protesting workers also claimed that they were denied leaves even at the death of their near and dear ones. They said a number of workers had been sacked for demanding their rights.

Talking to the media persons, one of the protesters, Rukhsana Gill, said she had no money even to purchase food items for her minor children. Zulfiqar Masih, another protester, said they had been denied their basic rights and the officials were least bothered about it.

“RWMC pays huge salaries to the company high-ups and ignores the lower staff. It is very difficult for us to work without salaries for two months as we have families. We will not collect garbage until we get our salaries.”

Another protester, Khalid Masih, said shopkeepers were not ready to give any grocery items to him on loan.

“We can neither pay our children’s school fee nor meet our families’ daily expenses,” said Boota Masih said.

On the other hand, the city wore a dirty look and garbage dumps continued piling up. Garbage also littered streets and markets making it impossible for the citizens to move around due to the stink. The strike caused heaps of garbage on all streets and roads, especially Railway Road, HMC Road, Thatta Khalil Road, Faisal Shaheed Road and Taxila Chowk.

Containers placed by the company in the city were full of garbage and could not be shifted to the dumping points.

When contacted, Hassan Khan, incharge sanitation RWMC Taxila circle, said the protesting employees would get their salaries on Monday as the cheques had been released on Friday.

Tanveer Ahmed, incharge monitoring sanitation, said the company collected 40 tons of garbage from the city every day through its 11 vehicles and around 100 sanitary workers.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2019