WORKERS at the Riverton City dump in Kingston who have for years been working without health insurance are finally to receive the benefit, following the intervention yesterday of the junior minister in charge of local government, Bobby Montague.

Montague, following a meeting with his senior staff members, ordered that the 36 workers assigned to the Riverton landfill be provided with health insurance and other benefits given to other staff members of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

In addition to health coverage, Montague ordered that the workers start making pension payments, and that National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and National Housing Trust deductions be taken from their wages, which would make them eligible to apply for housing loans.

At a meeting between the minister, senior staff of the waste management agency and unionised landfill workers at his office on Hagley Park Road yesterday, Montague ordered that the statutory deductions be taken from the workers’ salaries as of the next pay day, October 22, and that by the end of November, the workers must be given health insurance coverage through Blue Cross.

Montague also ordered that by November 1, the toilet, changing room facilities and the administrative building on the landfill be rehabilitated and furnished.

Montague also instructed that a spare part for a methane eliminating compactor which has been out of service for two years be sourced, despite

the company’s claims of a lack of funds.

“The last fire we had cost us $12 million and the part is $600,000 and it would have in a large part, prevented that fire so that will be money well spent,” he said.

One landfill worker, who spoke with the Observer yesterday and asked that his name be withheld, said workers were upset over the company’s prior refusal to offer them health insurance, especially given the high-risk nature of their job and their inability to access other benefits such as back-to-school loans offered by their employer. He said he was therefore pleased with Montague’s intervention.

“We love how the minister ah deal wid it. Him basically ah seh dem up at 61 (Half-Way-Tree Road) ah live better than we and ah we down a Riverton ah do di work,” he said.

The loans are offered through the Special Waste Fund – now estimated at almost $6 million – which is accumulated from fees paid over to the NSWMA for the disposal of “special waste”, those which fall outside the parameters of the domestic category, and which are usually toxic.

“It’s a sin, it’s a tragedy that these men are the ones who enforce the payment of the special waste fee to the head office and they can’t benefit from it. That money could easily be lost out there but they are complying,” another NSWMA employee said yesterday.

The source, who also requested anonymity, said prior to Montague’s orders yesterday, several attempts had been made to correct

the situation and have the men put on staff but blamed the laxity on inefficient management at the top levels.

Sources said that up to February this year most of the landfill workers got the minimum wage of $640 per day and although the law required that they receive double or time-and-a-half on Sunday and public holidays, the same $640 was the amount paid.

Aston Johnson of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), which represents the workers, said that there was a real problem and accused the solid waste management company of withholding the workers’ benefits.

“They would want to say there are financial constraints, not that they don’t want to pay but that they cannot afford to. That is one of their primary excuses,” he told the Observer.

“There are some benefits like uniforms and safety gear but they are small,” he said, stressing that there was no health insurance for the workers who have to separate, treat and bury different categories of harmful and toxic waste each day.

“It’s real hypocrisy for you for so long and these workers have been out there and the company may want to talk about category of workers but it doesn’t stop you,” Johnson said.

According to Montague, the meeting was essentially convened to brief him of the agency’s operations since he was new on the job. He said, however, that a wide range of issues were discussed, from staffing to financial matters.