Don't rush and hurt yourselves, city tells garbage collectors

City councillors want to make sure garbage collectors who have been scrutinized for finishing their shiftshours early arent hurting themselves to do it.

Councillors will also speed up a plan to putGPSin city garbage trucks and the citywill proceed with areview of theroutes in August, a move scheduled in 2013. Their expectation is the route review will take care of any issues that have arisen out of revelations that many city garbage collectorsare not putting in a full day's work.

Waste collectors have come under fire afterreports In the Hamilton Spectatorshowthe public crews are working fewer hoursthan their private counterparts. Councillors voted Wednesday to look at the amount of time lost from workplace injuries compared to other areas of public works.

It gives me a yardstick to know if were compromising health and safety to allow those employees to get home an hour, an hour and a half early, said Coun. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster, at Wednesday's general issues committee meeting. Heworries theyre sprinting from stop to stop.

Ive seen situations where theyre going so hard, they throw the whole darn green bin in the truck, he said.

Ive heard lost time is higher in that area than the other departments. I think its worth knowing that.

• RELATED:City looks at speeding up GPS plan for waste collection
• RELATED:Public garbage collectors working fewer hours than private counterparts

Ferguson still worries about reports that public waste collectors are finishing routesquickly and heading home early. But GPS and the route review will alleviate most of them, he said.

They havent rationalized the routes in 10 years and theres a lot more recycling, he said. Thatll come back in the route rationalizaton report.

City waste collectors got glowing reviews from some councillors at Wednesdays meeting. Coun. Sam Merulla of Ward 4 has been on a route with the collectors, and says theyre a model for other departments.

The fact that some crews would finish sooner and then backtrack to help others, to me, spoke volumes, he said.

I wish we could fill potholes as well as these guys pick up the garbage.

Coun. Chad Collins of Ward 5 said he's satisfied that the issue has been addressed.