Make the effort worth it for workers

If workers at the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) receive an incentive pay increase, it is well deserved.

While it is important to distinguish between those who operate from the comfort of air-conditioned offices and those men and women who must confront the stench and dirtiness on the streets, they all work as a team to ensure this country is clean and the threat of disease reduced considerably.

We suspect that people are not knocking down the doors of the SSA with application forms to join the garbage collection team. That, however, does not negate the importance of this group of workers to the maintenance of good health in this country.

Over the years, SSA workers have not shied away from frontally addressing issues that bedevil them. On a few occasions in recent years, they have engaged in short bouts of industrial action.

These men and women know their value and are not prepared to let anyone diminish their role or undervalue their contribution to the overall functioning of the country. Theirs is dirty work. They are the ones who put us in a position to brag about the generally clean state of our roads and neighbourhoods.

There is no denying that the work of SSA personnel is made harder by belligerent citizens who refuse to dispose of their garbage in an acceptable way but instead choose to denigrate our gully ecosystem and other green spaces. Such acts put the population in danger by compromising the quality of our drinking water and exposing some districts to flooding, as water courses become blocked during heavy rains.

The impact of a well-functioning and fully resourced SSA is an invaluable national resource. Prior to the current administration’s decision to spend millions of dollars to outfit the SSA with new trucks, sporadic collection of garbage was an unfortunate feature. There were just not enough functioning vehicles to meet the needs of the various communities across the island.

Today, the situation is greatly improved. However, the men and women of the SSA are requesting that the country take a further step and meet their longstanding demand for incentive performance pay that is expected to put more money in their pockets.

The workers’ representative, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), is touting its role in having this request hammered out with the board and management of the state-owned agency.

Following a meeting between the public sector union and the SSA leadership, General Secretary Richard Green was quoted as saying: “This meeting was at the request of the chairman of the SSA. We have requested that the SSA provide greater details of the incentive plan and we have also provided figures for what we believe will be adequate.”

While the details of the plan are yet to be finalised, the union is certain it will involve an increase in pay for sanitation workers. Describing it as a “step in the right direction”, the union boss said it will incorporate a mechanism for measuring productivity.

“There is evidence-based information of areas of increased productivity and areas where performance can be measured, as the areas for justification of an incentive plan,” Mr Green outlined.

The decision by the Board of the SSA to pursue this route of developing a framework where there is mutual agreement on productivity measurements should be applauded.

We suggest that after completion and rollout of this performance incentive plan for sanitation workers, a similar approach be adopted for other public services.

It was not surprising that during the local comedy production Laff-It-Off this year, it was easy to poke fun at the approach of some public officers.

Though we understood it as satire, the sketches depicted relatable caricatures of slow-to-act, indifferent, and passive-aggressive behaviour towards members of the public. This is not to diminish the work of public officers, for there are also examples of highly professional behaviour and practices across the civil service.

The case, however, for productivity or performance incentive pay plans, is worth pursuing.