Refuse collection service working double shifts in Corfu
CORFU. “By early this evening at the latest the problem with refuse collection in the town and the island as a whole will have been dealt with,” a local authority representative told Enimerosi when it passed on complaints received.
Already the small Cleansing Services trucks and their crews are at work in town and will then move on to Potamos and other areas.
The problem came about due to the personnel changes in the Cleansing Services. The public recruitment department (ASEP) ‘gave’ 125 personnel to Corfu on April 2. Out of these, only 50 have presented themselves so far. In the meantime, the contracts for those contracted to 31st March have ended.
Deputy Mayor for Cleansing Services, Spyros Aspiotis, explained that new recruits (even if they are existing personnel with new contracts) by law have 10 days in which to present themselves at the service and nobody can oblige them to come any sooner. Consequently, at this peak period the Cleansing Service is working at about half-strength.
To deal with the workload, the Municipality is arranging double shifts with 15 municipal refuse collection vehicles plus another 4 that have been contracted. On Easter Saturday there will be reinforcements in order to collect all the shards from the broken pots.
All in all, it seems that the date selected for the changeover in personnel at the Municipal Cleansing Services was perhaps not the wisest of choices…
