The Quezon City Council has approved a resolution requiring all private garbage collection contractors of the city to provide proper cover-all uniforms and body protection gears to their garbage collection personnel.
Authored by Councilor Jessica Castelo Daza, the resolution also mandated the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department (EPWMD) to enforce the requirement.
Castelo-Daza said that garbage collection personnel of private garbage collection contractors are usually collecting garbage with their bare hands and usually wears short pants, t-shirts and rubber slippers.
Allowing these collectors to work without proper uniform and body protection gears actually exposes them to germs and bacteria, which could lead to an increased risk for contracting serious illness, such as hepatitis or infections, the lady councilor said..
She added that garbage collection personnel also face extremely dangerous work conditions because their jobs involve maneuvering around huge trucks, lifting heavy loads, operating compacting machines and handling potentially dangerous waste materials.
“Therefore, there is a need to protect the physical health of these garbage collection personnel who are prone to acquire contagious disease dues to the nature of their work,” Castelo Daza said. -30- Divine/Maureen Quinones, PAISO
