DILG Urged To Allow LGUs Fund Garbage Collectors With Hazard Pay
DILG – An environmental health organization recently urged DILG to allow local government units to fund for hazard pay to garbage collectors.
According to PhilStar, the DILG and the Department of Budget and Management issued a joint memorandum circular where local government units were granted the authority to use 20% of their development fund to curb the spread of COVID-19 in their areas. It did not, however, specify the hazard pay payment to garbage collectors as an expense.
Environmental health organization EcoWaste Coalition caught wind of this and urged Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to allow LGUs to use a portion of their fund to provide the frontliners of the environmental sector with hazard pay, says EcoWaste Coalition zero waste campaigner Jove Benosa.
“We request the DILG and the DBM to issue a follow-up memorandum circular to this effect,”
It appealed to the government earlier to grant garbage collectors hazard pay because of the risk they face in the performance of essential waste management services, which is considered hazardous, especcially during to COVID-19 pandemic.
“Without their indispensable service, we may be faced with even more environmental and health hazards from uncollected waste,”
As per the report, a garbage collector in Cavite tested positive for COVID-19, says DENR Undersecretary Benny Antiporda. There are more than 7.5K positive cases in the country, among them were 862 recoveries and 501 fatalities.
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