Toulouse Métropole justifies the end of the “finished job” for garbage collectors
The 600 Toulouse Métropole garbage collectors want to be able to continue leaving as soon as they have finished their tour. Do you want them to stay until noon so that they do 35h? Why exactly decide the end of the finished party?
First, there is a law that requires us in the communities to put all officers every 35 hours, which is not the case today. Agents in the metropolitan area work an average of 25 hours per week. Of course, the work is hard and that we do not question and we recognize it.
So there may be exceptions and working time arrangements. But within the framework of this development, it is true that they are asked essentially for questions of safety, health, to put an end to the “finished party” because it is started practices which are dangerous for them and which encourage them to go as quickly as possible. Second, they will not make a job effective in the sense of what citizens expect. We often have complaints about papers that are left at the foot of the trash cans, on containers that are on bike paths, etc.
So there are garbage collectors who work poorly?
It’s not that they don’t work well enough, it’s that they work too fast. And we have 500 agents in Toulouse Métropole who are responsible for collection. We have 215 work accidents on average per year between 2018 and 2020. This means that almost one in two is the victim of an accident at work. It is too much and today we still issue too many reminders to the rule, too many warnings to the agents for behavior, for practices which are too dangerous for them.
What we want is above all that when the agents retire, they arrive there in the best possible health conditions. It is a profession which is a source of significant musculoskeletal disorders. There are therefore, as I told you, accidents at work and we want them to take more time to accomplish their tasks and that at the same time, we feel better the old, more the old when they come back. at the depot to remind them of good practices.
The garbage collectors tell them that they take more risks by staying longer on the road …
We do not agree on this diagnosis. How many inhabitants of the metropolis write to us to tell us the truck has burned in the fire? That it went in the forbidden direction? That there was a reverse, which is totally prohibited. There is bilateral collection, that is to say that the collection is done on both sides of the road, while the truck is going in one direction. It forces the officers to cross, which is strictly forbidden. They are asked to collect on the right in one direction and on the right in the other. There are calls to order and warnings that are given to officers on a regular basis, which attest to these dangerous practices.
However, if the garbage collectors take more of their time, it risks generating traffic jams, generalizing traffic is already very complicated in Toulouse, right?
I have heard what has been mentioned by the trade unions. We are completely open to working on a spread of the collection, for example with a collection that could start 10 hours after traffic influx in the streets of Toulouse. And then spread out, I don’t know until 3:30 p.m. or 4 p.m. if it’s necessary, or else we could also suspend the time collection precisely during peak hours to avoid these nuisances and these traffic jams. .
So you say that there will be discussions. And precisely, the unions meet the day after tomorrow to decide on their strategy. Do you fear a strike of the garbage cans piling up, as in Marseille?
I appeal to the responsibility of the agents. It is hard work, but there are financial compensations. For example in days recovered that other agents of the metropolis do not have. It is a recognition of the work and the arduousness. Simply, we must now put ourselves within the framework of the law. The finished gone, it is not legal, it is not legal.
What’s next ?
There is a passage in technical committee, ie in the body which decides the modifications of work of the community on November 18th. And we will implement this reform on January 1, 2022.