Four days before the session of the Council of the CIS heads of state, which is held in Ashgabat on 11-11 October, public utilities staff cleaned the city until 3 a.m.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that they have not been paid for working overtime.
Yard keepers, gardeners, plumbers, electricians, female cleaners from house administrations, the public utilities department, the enterprises of Aşgabtagyzsuw association (water supply водоснабжение) mopped the asphalt on protocol streets, swept the pavements, and painted road surface marking. The equipment, including street sprinklers, was deployed, but major works were done manually.
It should be mentioned that the streets connecting the international airport with the Ashgabat centre, including Gagarin street, A. Niyazov and Turkmenbashi avenues, as well as the avenues of Garaşsyzlyk (Independence), Bitaraplyk (Neutrality), 10-ýyl abadançylyk (10 years of well-being) are cleaned with detergents on a daily basis.
— Our working hours are officially from 9 a.m.to 6 p.m.and at 8 p.m.we start “the night shift” (cleaning) which lasts until 3 a.m.
We get home by 4 a.m.At 9 a.m.we have to be at work again.We are extremely exhausted but no one promises us any overtime pay.
On the contrary, we are threatened with terminations in case we skip the clean-up campaign, one of the yard keepers said.
Exploitation of labour has long become a common phenomenon in Turkmenistan.