MANILA, Philippines -- The Quezon City Council has approved a resolution requiring the city's private garbage collection contractors to provide proper cover-all uniforms and body protection gears to their garbage collection personnel to protect them from communicable diseases.
Councilor Jessica Castelo Daza of the city's fourth district said the resolution authorizes the city's Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department (EPWMD) to enforce the requirement to garbage collection con-tractors.
Daza said that garbage collection personnel of private garbage collection contractors are usually unprotected while hauling garbage to the trucks with their bare hands while wearing short pants, t-shirts and rubber slippers.
She said that allowing these collectors to work without proper uniform and body protection gears actually exposes them to germs and bacteria, which could lead to an increased risk for contracting serious illness, such as hepatitis or infections.
Daza added that garbage collection personnel also face extremely dangerous work conditions because their jobs involve maneuvering around huge trucks, lifting heavy loads, operating compacting machines and handling po-tentially dangerous waste materials.
''Therefore, there is a need to protect the physical health of these garbage collection personnel who are prone to acquire contagious disease due to the nature of their work,'' Daza said.
