Private garbage contractor under investigation by provincial labour officials
October 24, 2012 at 1:48 PM
A number of problems continue to escalate with the City’s private garbage collection contractor including a recent complaint filed with Employment Standards.
Since the beginning of October, Emterra Environmental has been scrambling to get the city`s garbage and recycling pick up on schedule. The City has also received thousands of complaints from residents about overdue pick-up.
“They are stretched out pretty thin and are not delivering the service that they should be,” said Local 500 President, Mike Davidson. “The long hours they are working can pose a health and safety risk for these workers, he said.”
The Local has long maintained that the City should have kept a mix of public and private trash collection services and that contracting out would cost more and deliver less.
“We believe garbage removal has cost more every year since it was contracted out and we`ve asked, on many occasions, for an independent audit of the City's waste collection system,” said Davidson. “Let's see what we're paying for this service, and the figures will speak for themselves.”
Today, City Councillor, Harvey Smith, moved a motion at City Council`s meeting to ask Winnipeg`s Water and Waste Department to resume the collection of garbage and recycling. Click here to read the motion by Councillor Smith.
