In the scorching midday sun, 25-year-old Bernard (not real name) uses his bare hands to gather garbage into a dirty sack. Dressed in a threadbare overall, and with no gloves, boots or face mask to guard him from the hazardous rotting garbage, Bernard risks catching diseases like cholera while on duty.
“The smell is awful and I have almost lost my sense of smell,” says Bernard, who works for Nabugabo Updeal Joint Venture (NUJV), a private company that cleans Kampala City at a fee.
Bernard’s work starts at about 7:00am, collecting garbage on Ben Kiwanuka street. “In a day, I have two phases of clean-up. The first starts from 7:00am to 12:00pm and the second at around 12:30pm to 7:00pm,” he explains.
The first phase involves collecting over 21 sacks of garbage and loading them onto a waiting truck. He does not have money for lunch and he is not allowed rest till he finishes the day’s work.
Each day, Bernard, who lives in Nakulabye, a Kampala suburb, walks about 10km to and from home. Before heading home, he cleans himself in the dirty stream at Nakivubo channel. He cannot afford to buy water.
“I reach home exhausted and hungry. There is no food so I beg from relatives or friends. I always pay them at the end of the month when I get money. If I do not get any food, I sleep hungry,” Bernard says.
At the end of the month, he earns sh100,000 which is all spent within hours of earning it. “These guys are killing me slowly,” says Bernard, who often falls sick, suffering from diarrhoea, malaria and cough. But he can hardly meet his medical expenses.
“Even when I get sick, I have to work,” he says. “I cannot afford a day off lest I get fired.” If they are lenient with you for skipping a day, he says, 40% of your salary is slashed.
But Bbira Kimulah, the assistant operations manager of Nabugabo Updeal Joint Venture, says they give their workers sick leave. “We deduct (the sick employee’s) salary to hire a temporary worker to stand in for him or her. We do not sack anybody who is sick; we respect their rights,” he says.
Stigma
Bernard explains that when he gets a chance to have a meal, restaurant owners kick him out. “They fear to lose customers because I smell bad ,” he says. He says it is also hard to interact with other people because they fear to associate with ‘stinking people like me’. He often receives insults from people.
“Some call me garbage. Others who know me hide when they set their eyes on me. I also hide from those who know me because I feel ashamed. But I cannot do this anymore. This is my job,” he says.
Before he joined garbage collection in January, Bernard used to vend groundnuts for his grandmother in the city to make ends meet. “But when she died, we used all the capital to bury her. I had no option but to join the garbage collecting business. I had a friend who was collecting garbage and moving on the trucks. One day I met him and I asked to accompany him,” he says.
Bernard says he volunteered for the company before he was employed on full time. “When they saw that I was doing good work, they recruited me,” he says.
But after recruitment, Bernard was neither given an appointment letter nor identity card. “My only identification is a uniform. They also registered my name in their office and that is how I get my payments,” he says. He adds that he cannot open a bank account or get a loan from a bank because he lacks a workplace ID.
He says his biggest challenge is working alone on his street, collecting garbage from about 15 restaurants and over 20 shops. “I fear I will collapse and die one day because I get very tired,” says Bernard, who sometimes works at night, collecting garbage from shops he cannot access during the day. His company does not pay him for working extra hours.
Like Bernard, 30-year-old Martha, a street sweeper employed by the same company, starts her work at 7:00am and ends at 7:00pm. Martha says she is worried about lack of maternity and annual leave.
“I have been here for over a year without getting any leave; thank God I have never conceived. Here pregnant women lose their jobs as soon as they go to deliver. We work from January to January.”
Twenty-eight-year-old Lydia (not real name), a street sweeper for Hill Top Enterprises, says: “Recently a taxi knocked me down but I was lucky not to die. Out of sympathy, doctors at Mulago Hospital treated me for free. When I came back to work, I was told there was no compensation for the accident.”
While we moved around with their boss Kimulah, some of his workers were sitting atop the garbage on a truck without any protective gear or uniform. Kimulah admits that the waste is harmful to their health and their workers often get sick or get accidents.
He also says one of their employees was knocked down and injured by a speeding vehicle recently while at work. Kimulah says every month at least two of their workers are victims of motor accidents due to careless driving on the city roads. “We spend sh3m on their treatment every month.”
But his colleague, who declined to speak publicly, says: “That is a lie. They do not mind about our health. When we get sick we suffer on our own.”
Expert’s view about garbage
Dr. Joseph Senzoga, the Kampala City Council coordinator for Epidemic outbreaks, says: “Garbage is full of industrial and home chemicals. These contain toxic fumes and bacteria. Many of these garbage collectors are exposed to worms, respiratory infections and skin diseases,” he says.
NUJV reacts
Kimulah says: “All our workers are given protective gear but some sell them to get money. Others keep it at home because they don’t know how to use it.”
He, however, says they are unable to replace lost or stolen gear because they do not have enough money. “Our operational costs are high. Everyday, we spend about sh65m buying fuel for the garbage collecting trucks. And we have to pay workers.”
Contrary to Martha’s claim, Kimulah says they give three months maternity leave to women workers. “But we give no annual leave because these are casual workers. We do not also give them appointment letters; they are casual workers who may leave any time,” he says.
Fred Serubula, the managing director of Hill Top Enterprises, says: “I do not provide lunch or transport. My company is small and I do not have much money.”
Good habits by other companies
Visensio Odong, president of Waste Pickers Association, an agency advocating for rights of garbage collectors, says out of the 20 private companies, only seven have good working conditions. He lists them as Great Wastes and Recycling Foundation, BIN, BIN I, CITEK, TASK Cleaning Services, Global Cleaning Services and Safi.
“These companies pay workers well and provide protective gear, lunch and transport allowances to their workers,” he says.
What the 2006 Employment Act says
Dr. Emmanuel Otaala, the state minister for labour, says the Employment Act 2006 provides for workers rights. “An employee is entitled to a contract of service, termination of contract, termination notices, and protection of wages, at least eight hours of work, rest and holidays, employment of women, protection of children and care of employees.”
Odongo says some garbage collectors work for long hours without any meal or transport and “some times they are denied wages or paid little money”.
He says some garbage companies pay garbage collectors an average of between sh5,000-sh50,000 a month. “And yet they work for over 12 hours a day.”
He adds that the garbage companies employ over 100,000 workers countrywide. “The problem is that only 106 of these garbage collectors belong to the association which advocates for their rights. I think this is why they are exploited,” he explains.
He adds that joining the association is free. “But some companies are threatening to sack them if they join us. They fear that when they (the workers) join, they will know their rights and demand better services,” Odong says.
Otaala calls upon garbage workers to join trade unions to advocate for their rights. He called on Waste Pickers Association to sensitise garbage workers about their rights.
Source: Frederick Womakuyu and Oyet Okwera, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 24 May 2010.
