By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 5 December 2013:
The rubbish piling up in Tripoli is set to be cleared after the General Company for . . .[restrict]Cleaning Tripoli (GCCT) announced it would call off its strike, having received LD 10 million to pay owed wages.
GCCT General Manager, Ali Faris, told the Libya Herald that a resumption of some, but not all, services would begin today after the striking workers’ demands had been partially met. He called the strike, which began last Wednesday, more of a temporary suspension of services in protest at unpaid wages.
Faris claimed that the GCCT’s five thousand employees had not been paid in three months. The LD 10 million would, he said, cover only two months of the wanting funds.
Protests began after drivers from the company refused to continue moving rubbish from a dump in the Abu Saleem area. The dump was recently closed due to health concerns. Other workers then joined the strike in solidarity, resulting in rubbish piling up in the capital’s streets.
This rubbish should be cleared swiftly, Faris said, but full services would not resume until the full amount of money had been received to cover all unpaid wages. He also said that the future for municipal services in Tripoli, including waste disposal, was uncertain as funds from the budget had still not been allocated to the Ministry of Local Government. [/restrict]
