NATIONAL Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Executive Director Audley Gordon says there is no intention to increase the number of staff members working from home.

Gordon told the Jamaica Observer that a number of staff members have already been allowed to work from home, and that any further reduction in the number of office-based employees could create serious logistical issues, reducing the efficiency of the agency’s operations.

“What should we do, send home the supervisors and the dispatchers? They are essential workers, and so too are the corporate staff. Otherwise, what would happen when there is a problem on the streets and they have nobody to call?” he said.

Gordon was responding to claims that the NSWMA had tightened its work-from-home entitlements, keeping more workers in the office.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness introduced the work-from-home measure in February 2020, requiring permanent secretaries and heads of various ministries, departments and agencies to determine certain functions which could be carried out from home in order to limit spread of the novel coronavirus.

That lasted for just seven days, but has been retained with every extension of the disaster risk management protocols since.

Holness had also said that only people who needed to work in office should be encouraged to do so. Additionally, he called on private sector firms to allow staff who can work from home to do so.

This has created some obscurities in terms of how agencies like the NSWMA allow senior staff, who back up the work of the road crews from their offices, to work from home, and whether it should not be considered one of the exempted “critical service delivery” agencies.

According to Gordon, the NSWMA is a “critical service delivery” agency within the public sector, which has to maintain a sizeable back-up staff to remain effective in keeping the country clean.

He said that in light of that, the NSWMA has to retain administrative staff as well as supervisors and managers to effect a proper public cleansing programme for the entire country.

“Are they saying to me that the sidemen and the sweepers should supervise themselves? They don’t need the coverage? They don’t need to be able to call when they need gloves and other equipment, and if they are out there and something happens to them they don’t need to have people in the office to talk to about it?” he asked.

The NSWMA’s has regional agencies covering the island, including Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM) which covers Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and St Thomas, and Southern, Western and North Eastern Metropolitan Parks and Markets which cover the rest of the rural areas. .

Gordon, a former Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) councillor, who has often been credited for his efforts in seeking to meet the challenges of keeping the Corporate Area clean, insists that there are “no non-essential workers” at the agency.

He joined the NSWMA in July 2016 as chief technical officer, and assumed the post of executive director later that year. He has since articulated a clear vision for the transformation of the image of the authority, with accountability and transparency as the key elements.