VietNamNet Bridge – Rubbish collectors in HCM City have gone on strike in protest of regulations that turn responsibility for collecting fees for trash removal over to ward offices.

A waste collector in HCM City.

According to Decision 88 of the city’s municipal People’s Committee, which came into effect on May 1, each household is to pay from 15,000 to 20,000 dong, depending on their location, for waste collection.

The money will be collected by ward people’s committees. The committees will keep 20 to 25 per cent of this amount for ‘environmental protection’ and give the rest to rubbish collectors.

Previously, rubbish collectors collected a fee directly from each household, and only had to hand in 5 to 10 percent of their earnings to the people’s committees of each ward for an environmental protection fund.

"I have been earning 3 million dong (US$166) a month. If 20 percent of my income is taken for the environmental protection fund, how will I support my family?" Nguyen Thi Be, head of a waste collecting team in Binh Thanh district, demanded to know. 

"This is too much. We cannot survive if they take this from us," added Le Du Hoang, her fellow rubbish collector.

After receiving opinions and complaints from the public, the deputy director of the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Nguyen Van Phuoc, said that his department would ask the city People’s Committee to reconsider its decision.

He added that the new plan was aimed at improving management for waste collecting fees. It transferred responsibility for collecting fees from households and business to the ward government offices from the private waste collecting teams.

In many locations, Phuoc explained, only 70 to 80 per cent of residents have been paying waste collection fees. Because the new decision enabled local authorities to collect the fees more effectively, the number of could have stricter management for collecting fees, thus the number of households not paying would be reduced.

"This can only benefit rubbish collectors," he said. According to the new decision, private rubbish collectors would be paid for their work within the first five days of the following month.

Le Trung Tuan Anh, deputy director of the Department’s Solid Waste Management Division, said that the city would make sure the rights of rubbish collectors were unchanged.

However, rubbish collectors didn’t agree with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s explanations, and so they went on strike in early June. From June 7-11, rubbish piled up in many places because the rubbish collectors didn’t work.

“We have to pay for most of our equipment,” said a waste collector in District 8. “The local government doesn’t give us any subsidy. We live on tips from the people, especially during festivals and holidays. It is absurd that local governments presume to collect the fees and only give back the money to us after taking out 20-25%.”

On June 8, around 300 rubbish collectors assembled in front of the City Department of Natural Resources and Environment to protest the implementation of the new regulations. Alarmed, concerned agencies met urgently design a draft instruction clarifying the implementation of Decision 88.

At a meeting on June 17 to explain the new draft instruction to waste collectors, Department Director Dao Anh Kiet said the new draft document stipulates only that only 10-15 percent of collections, not 20-25 percent, shall be withheld by local authorities as environmental fees.

However, the new document still allows local authorities to collect the fee, not the rubbish collectors.

“A city regulation issued in 1998 allowed private rubbish collectors to collect up to 15,000 dong in fees per family per month, and they have to pay back 10 percent to the local government,” explained Tran Ba Khanh of the city Department of Finance .”Thus, they have had 13,500 dong per family per month. Under the new regulations, the monthly fee goes up to 20,000 dong. The local government keeps 15 percent for environmental protection.  Thus the trash collectors can get 17,000 dong per household, higher than the previous level, so it is wrong to say that their income falls.”

Khanh added that the new regulation only makes changes inf the waste fees. The 1998 regulation addresses management of waste collections, and it instructs that local governments, not the rubbish collectors, are supposed to collect the fees. In his view, local governments are required by law to manage private waste collectors.

Go Vap District Public Service Company Director Do Anh Khang said private rubbish collectors don’t want to join public service companies or cooperatives. They aim to work independently, which causes difficulties for government agencies.

“HCM City has to pay up to 1 trillion dong for waste treatment. Decision 88 aims to reduce this burden on the local budget. Rubbish collectors protested because their interest is affected. We have to carefully consider this matter,” Kiet said.

VietNamNet/VNE