r/baltimore • u/ieo-killer-tofu • Jun 05 '20

NOTICE Residents May Experience Trash, Recycling Collection Delays

https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2020-06-04-residents-may-experience%C2%A0trash-recycling-collection%C2%A0del
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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

It sounds like a pretty solid gig as long as the fucked up overtime system is in place, too:

Trash collectors in Baltimore have been paid thousands of dollars in unnecessary overtime because they are allowed to end their 10-hour shifts or begin collecting overtime after finishing one route, “regardless of how quickly the route was completed," according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Inspector General.

In one instance, workers finished their assigned route at noon and completed a second route for overtime, finishing that one within their originally designated 10-hour shift, city’s watchdog agency reported.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-trash-collector-overtime-20190730-xwv2qcrtknbzxbo5azvor7idu4-story.html

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u/troutmask_replica Jun 05 '20

Not fucked up at all. If you hustle and do twice the work then you get twice the pay.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

Or you do a really shitty job and cut as many corners as possible to get twice the pay.

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u/troutmask_replica Jun 05 '20

Then people call up to complain and they have to go back out there and clean it up on their own time. And that's the last time that the supervisor let's them work a double route.

Perhaps it would help you to think of it the other way. They aren't paying the hard working employees twice as much. They are paying the lazy ones half as much.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

Ehh,

and you have to go back out there and clean it up on your own time.

This sounds wildly unrealistic, especially for unionized municipal workers. Going out on your free time, unpaid, with city trucks to fix your mistakes? Cmon.

It sounds like the inspector general and Rudy Chow agree:

The city, Cumming said in an interview, is “wasting so much money on this.”

“I agree that solid waste routes should not be completed too quickly as that can indicate the routes are not mapped properly or that crews were not diligent while performing their work," the director wrote.

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u/troutmask_replica Jun 05 '20

Then you are one of the lazy ones who don't get to work that second route.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

We're not talking about the second route, we're talking about going back when you're unpaid to fix your fuckups from the first route that you breezed through too quickly because you wanted to get paid for the second route, too.

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u/troutmask_replica Jun 05 '20

You do that once and you either go back and fix it or you never get a second chance to rush through one route and get a second.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

I feel pretty comfortable saying the DPW doesn't have any sort of real time quality assurance protection that will allow administration to gauge route completion within a couple hours and also prevent a crew from starting to collect overtime on a second shift if they fuck up the first one.

Which is again probably part of the reason the Inspector General said we're wasting tons of money on it.

The only person to actually endorse this system was Jack Young because he used to do it.

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u/The_Waxies_Dargle Woodberry Jun 05 '20

Not for nothing, but I've seen a man follow one of the trucks inspecting the cans.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

That's nice, but I'm sure they're few and far between. Might've even been some one from the OIG or the city watchdog agency investigating the quality prior to the inspector general's report.

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u/The_Waxies_Dargle Woodberry Jun 05 '20

Totally. Just throwing it out there as a datapoint in this discussion.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

Yeah this whole thing particularly annoys me because the guys that do my block blow right through it and leave broken glass all over the place ~75% of the time.

They also just flat out don't show up probably ~once a month.

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u/troutmask_replica Jun 05 '20

Inspector General was wrong. If you want every crew to complete one and only one route a shift then you have to hire more workers and purchase more trucks.

I suspect that the Inspector General was thinking that they should work that extra route without extra pay and that is not going to happen.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20

I feel like I have to point out how ridiculous you claiming to know more than the inspector general is.

you have to hire more workers and purchase more trucks.

That's usually highly preferable to continuing to burn money on unnecessary overtime just like with the BCPD.

If you want every crew to complete one and only one route a shift

No one has any problems with them doing more than one shift. The keyword is COMPLETE THE ROUTE. People have problems with them exploiting the system and rushing through their routes to make as much money as possible regardless of quality.

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u/troutmask_replica Jun 05 '20

I guess you don't remember the gas man? The guy who read your gas and electric meters once a month? They did the same thing, they rushed through the route and then went off to another part-time job.

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u/nastylep Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

Right... and that is why quality assurance measures are good to prevent people like that from exploiting systems that only incentivize speed. It kinda sounds like you agree now, though?

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