Street cleaners get place to eat

A sanitation worker takes a break Wednesday on the stairs of a public park near Chengdu Road South and Changle Road. Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

Shanghai's sanitation authority is building facilities to give the city's 32,000 sanitation workers a place to eat, shower and change clothes, local media reported Wednesday.

The facilities aim to improve working conditions for the workers, who have trouble finding decent facilities where they can take breaks and eat their meals.

Nearly 10,000 city sanitation workers do not have a specified rest area, according to the Shanghai Municipal Afforestation and City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Administration.

"I usually have to eat on the roadside or in nearby public parks, where I can sit, though it is noisy and sometimes dirty. I don't have anywhere else to go," said a sanitation worker surnamed Su, who hails from Anhui Province.

Each rest area will provide workers with a cafeteria, bathrooms, locker rooms and showers, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post.

The administration said it has built 500 such facilities around the city so far.

Su said it would be great to have a place to rest, especially when it rains. He usually has to take shelter in the offices at the public parks.

"Although we can usually find shelter when the weather is bad, it is not a convenient place for us to store our equipment or belongings, especially the female workers who may want to change clothes," Su told the Global Times.

Each rest area inside Inner Ring Road will cover workers within a 500-meter radius, according to the administration's plan. Outside Inner Ring Road, each rest area will serve workers with an 800-meter radius.

Each rest site will provide facilities for 50 workers working in 17-person shifts. The administration has published a map of the planned rest sites online and is soliciting public comment about the plan until July 9.