August 27, 2008	Wednesday	Sha'aban 24, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 26: As many as 11,000 workers of the sanitation departments of various towns of the city have expressed their serious reservations over handing over of the garbage collection system to a Chinese firm and have termed it a failure of the city government.

This was stated by the chairman of the Municipal Workers Trade Union Alliance (MWTUA), Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, and General Secretary Farid Awan while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club here on Tuesday.

They were of the view that due to an agreement with the Chinese firm, jobs and other benefits of the workers were in danger.

Mr Shah said that earlier it was the responsibility of the UCs and towns’ administrations to manage the garbage collection system but under the new setup the same infrastructure including workforce, vehicles and equipment etc were being handed over to a private firm. He said that only a change in the administration was a big question mark on the efficiency of the city government.

Mr Shah said that despite holding of various protest demonstrations and meetings with Sindh chief minister and minister for local government, the problems remained unresolved.

The labour leaders urged the city government to explain terms of their employment, salaries and perks.

They said that the workers should be allowed to form employees’ union according to the country’s laws. They further asked the government to ensure continuity of their jobs and facilities of sanitation workers and other relevant employees.

In case the government failed to resolve these issues, they warned to widen their protest. They said that in this connection as a first step they would stop sanitation work in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Saddar, Jamshed and Liquatabad towns from Aug 28.—PPI