VietNamNet Bridge – Thousands of sanitation workers in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City are finding their work particularly unrewarding, now more than ever, as they have been working practically without pay since the end of last year due to the dire financial difficulties of their employers.

Sanitation workers in HCM City collect water hyacinth from the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal to let it flow more freely.

A number of such firms say they have no money to pay their employees, let alone to carry out maintenance of garbage trucks and equipment, the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.

According to Tran Thanh Tong, Director of the Single-member District 12 Public Service JSC (operating in District 12 of HCM City), the firm has sent 10 official dispatches to concerned authorities, asking them to cover its costs to no avail. In April, Dau An Phuc, vice chairman of District 12 People’s Committee, appealed directly to the city’s People’s Committee about the firm’s situation.

According to District 12 reports, the firm has accrued debts because they HCM City Urban Environment Single-member JSC (Citenco) owes it money for garbage transport costs as per a contract. Specifically, the latter owes District 12’s environment firm VND 25 billion (US$ 1.1 million), with the debts incurred in 2013 reaching some VND 7 billion ($308,000), debts in 2016 (from October to December) reaching VND 10 billion ($440,100), and VND 7 billion ($308,000) in the first two months of 2017.

In addition, Citenco has not approved past payments to District 12 for the period from 2014 to September 2016.

In 2017, Citenco did not renew its contracts with the District 12 firm, nor has it paid the money it owes the firm.

Dau An Phuc said District 12 Public-service JSC has had to borrow VND13 billion ($572,130) to keep its operations running. From February, the firm has been unable to pay salaries. The firm is also subject to a fine of VND 750 million ($33,000) by the HCM City Tax Department for overdue tax payment that the firm remains unable to pay (VND4 billion, or $176,000).

Similarly, Vu Quoc Bao, Director of Thu Duc District Public-service Single-member JSC, said the situation in his firm “does not look any brighter.” From October 2016, the Thu Duc firm has not received any payments for its work – garbage collection and transport – estimated at VND31 billion ($1.36 million), Bao said.

“From 2014 to 2015 as well as the first nine months of 2016, our work has not been recompensed either, since the HCM City People’s Committee hasn’t come up with a unit price for domestic solid waste transportation,” he added.

“Unit prices for street-cleaning have not been officially issued either, that’s why, from August to December 2016, the Thu Duc District People’s Committee only paid us 80 per cent of what we should have received,” Bao complained.

While authorities are skimping, clean-up works in Thu Duc District – one of the oldest and crowded urban districts in the city – still need to be done. Thu Duc Public-service JSC has had to borrow money from the banks exceeding the amount allowed by law, but has still come up short.

“Many benefits for workers, including holidays or New Year bonuses, among others stated under the collective bargaining agreement, have been either cut back or put on indefinite hold,” Bao said.

Moreover, the director of the firm had to mortgage his own home to have enough money to pay the employees ahead of the 2017 Lunar New Year holiday.

The root of the problem

HCM City generated some 7,000 - 8,000 tonnes of waste every day, with 70 per cent being solid waste, and the sheer amount of works needs to be de-centralised: Citenco has oversight, but the waste collection and transportation works are relegated to local-level public-service firms.

According to a Citenco representative, in 2013 the company signed contracts with a number of district- and ward-level public service firms on collecting and transporting waste in their respective jurisdictions.

As per the contract, compensation levels for their works was to be decided based on regulations issued by the HCM City People’s Committee.

For example, the unit price stated in the 2016 contract between Citenco and District 12 still needs to be approved by the HCM City People’s Committee before Citenco can deliver the entirety of the payment.

However, at the moment of writing, even when unit prices have been approved, the city’s budget has not been disbursed, so Citenco still is unable to pay its district and ward-level firms.

Citenco said it hadn’t signed a contract with the city’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources this year and is therefore unable to renew its contracts with district- and ward-level firms. 

VNS