LAHORE: Since June 2021, the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has fired almost 4,000 employees, the majority of whom were sanitary workers, for failing to report for work for 30 days.

Employees claim they skip work because of poor pay, difficult work, insufficient medical care, rising health problems, and tough managers.

An LWMC sanitation worker claims that maintaining cleanliness is the hardest job for anyone in Pakistan.

`Most of the time, domestic and workrelated concerns prevent us from reporting for duty,` said the worker.

`Many employees lose their employment simply as a result of takingon part-time work to cover rising costs.

Before recent salary increases, a sanitary worker received a salary of Rs19,500; this amount has now increased to Rs25,000.

According to official data, the LWMC-a company of nearly 13,000 employees, including around 12,5000 sanitary workers-has been facing issues related to low attendance of the workers, mainly those tasked with daily cleanliness, and lifting and disposal of solid waste.

Due to Lahore`s deteriorating cleanliness, attendance of workers became a pressing issue in 2021. On June 21, 2021, 97 workers were removed from the job for being absent from duty for a long time.

The trend continued in the following months.

`The removal of peo-ple from their jobs due to absenteeism is a serious worry, and the company has to conduct a survey to learn about the issues that such a large number of employees are facing,` said an official.

The official said workers suffer health problems but they lacked resources to get medical treatment.

`Financial stress is another issue for workers, as, due to their low salaries, they often take on other part-time jobs in a bid to increase their income. But this leaves them tired and then makes them not well.

And finally, this forces them to be absent from the job for a long time, as they are entitled to get one leave a month, the official maintained.

According to him, there arevariousreports of misbehaviour with the sanitary workers,including women, on site. `So after being humiliated by the seniors, workers are left with no option but to disappear from duty without informing anyone, he added.

He said the inadequate medical facility at the site in case of any injury and no other monetary benefits under the human resource policy, rules, and regulations, domestic issues, and other unforeseen difficulties or problems also force workers to make them absent from duty.

A senior official of the company said that under the rules and regulations, they (the workers) are only allowed to avail of one leave in a month. But they used to disappear from duty due to various issues, leaving the company with no option but to take action in a bid to maintain the city`s cleanliness system.