The Municipal Workers’ Union of Lisbon (STML) has stated that “the degradation of the municipal public service of urban cleaning and hygiene is largely due to the political choices of PS/PSD.”
Sharing concern about the cleanliness and urban hygiene of Lisbon, the union representing municipal workers considered that the “structural problem” is the administrative reform that PS and PSD approved in 2012 in the Assembly of the Republic.
The STML recalled that the administrative reform, implemented in the following two years, resulted in the extinction and/or merger of parishes, which were added to the transfer of competencies, with parish councils assuming new responsibilities, including part of urban cleaning and hygiene (sweeping, washing, and weeding), with the city council being responsible for solid waste removal.
“From 2014 until today, the city has been running after the damage caused exclusively by the mentioned political parties. On the labor front, the consequences of these choices are also evident because they are inseparable. While previously there was a Urban Hygiene Service Directorate, 25 now coexist, with the consequent lack of coordination and evident repercussions on the quality of the service provided,” the union pointed out.
According to the union, in the 24 Lisbon parish councils, there was “an exponential increase in precariousness, with abusive and recurrent hiring of workers on green receipts, along with an unacceptable devaluation of working conditions and the rights of those who work.”
In the city council, despite the admission competitions held in recent years for street sweepers and drivers, there is still a lack of human resources and mechanical means (heavy and light removal vehicles), said the STML, considering that “there is still much to be done” for this municipal service to keep up, in terms of resources, with the city’s growth and associated dynamics, including tourism.
Reacting to the statements of the Mayor of Lisbon (CML), Carlos Moedas (PSD), that there is a “dysfunctional system” in this area, the union criticized the absence of measures to overcome this dysfunctionality and “the artificially created issue of Sunday work as a response to all ills in urban hygiene.”
For the union, the social-democratic mayor’s concern seems to be more related to the 2025 municipal elections “and less about moving forward with serious solutions and clear answers to the serious problems experienced in the municipal public service of cleaning and urban hygiene.”
“Almost all urban hygiene workers already work from Monday to Saturday (six consecutive days), adding Sunday, a mandatory rest day, which has presented an increasing number of removal circuits, work carried out through shifts or on a voluntary basis. In short, Sunday work is a reality,” argued the STML, adding that, on the part of the municipal executive, there is no open negotiation process to discuss Sunday work.
Regarding staff recruitment, the union confirmed that, despite the low salary (one euro more than the national minimum wage of 820 euros) and the lack of prospects for fair career progression, “in the last three years, about 293 workers have entered for the position of street sweeper and 59 workers for the position of heavy machinery and special vehicle driver,” although this increase does not result in an effective reinforcement of the urban hygiene sector.
Regarding the unhealthiness and hardship supplement, which Carlos Moedas reiterates being the first mayor to pay this salary complement to workers, the STML emphasized that “it was a conquest of CML operational workers in the 1980s.”
According to the union, for more than 30 years, its effective regulation was demanded from successive governments, not only for the city of Lisbon but also for the rest of the country, in terms of its attribution and application, “which only came to be verified in 2021.”
From the union’s perspective, the municipal solid waste removal service “urgently needs” a reinforcement of workers, including street sweepers and drivers; operational, effective vehicles suitable for the city’s specificities; workers in the workshops that repair and maintain the operational municipal fleet; professional training; investment in improving working conditions; sensitivity in defining and redefining removal circuits; awareness and inspection campaigns among the population and large waste producers (hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, bars, etc.).
“It is urgent to respect workers’ rights and health and safety standards at work, namely by complying in all dimensions with the agreement signed between CML and this union in June 2023, and to ensure a work organization that safeguards their health and physical integrity,
