The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality says the illegal strike by refuse truck drivers, who downed tools on Tuesday is over.
The illegal strike led to a standstill in the collection of domestic waste, trade waste collection services across the City, a press release from the municipality this afternoon says.
Following a court interdict that the municipality got on Friday (8 November 2013) against the employees instructing them to return to work and continuos engagement by the Public Health Directorate management with the employees, a decision was taken by the employees to go back to work.
The employees involved in the strike included employees from Uitenhage, Despatch, Motherwell, Struandale, Gail Road and Harrower Road depots. Municipal trucks have already been dispatched across the City to do waste collections.
All the transfer stations and landfill sites have since been opened with cleaning in progress. From now onwards the waste will now be collected as per normal schedule. Residents who use black bags for their waste collection must expect their collections to be as per the usual dates. They must place their waste at areas accessible to the Waste Management employees. Since the wheely bins are collected fortnightly the municipality will then do the collections from Monday next week.
On behalf of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Executive Mayor Benson Fihla and the entire leadership would like to apologise to the residents for the inconvenience caused by the illegal strike. The Executive Mayor would also like to thank the residents for their patience and understanding during this difficult situation.
Issued by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Communications and Media Management office. For more information please do not hesitate to contact Communications and Media Management Officer, Mthubanzi Mniki at (041) 5061539/0713813779
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