PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Streets Department said it has hired 70 new workers in the last month, and is on its way to ending the pickup delays that have plagued it since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city also says other departments are scrambling to fill vacanies as well.
The Streets Department got clobbered when people started staying home, creating new volumes of trash. It needed more workers.
But instead, it had fewer.
Workers got sick or burned out during the pandemic. Absenteeism and attrition created a spiral that put trash collection as much as a week behind at times.
Last month, trash pickup delays averaged 48 hours. This week, according to Deputy Commissioner Keith Warren, they are down to 24 hours.
"Things are improving. We’ve been continuously hiring more staff," Warren said.
"It’s not back to pre-pandemic levels, nor do we anticipate it ever getting back there but because some things are opening up, that’s lessening the burden."
Warren said that sanitation jobs are hard to fill.
"We get some people out there and they do a day behind the truck and they say, ‘Hey, this isn’t the job for me,'" he admitted.
He explained that volume is shrinking a bit as well, as people return to in-person work and are dining out more.
The department is adjusting routes and working seven days a week to catch up on the backlog. Officials did not say when it would be fully caught up and back on schedule citywide.
Philadelphia was not alone with this challenge. Most large cities wrestled with high volume, worker illness and attrition and other factors that set trash collections behind. And a national labor shortage has made hiring up difficult in many departments.
The Streets Department is not the only city government operation to be hit by staff shortages.
The Free Library of Philadelphia lost 48 workers during the pandemic. Spokesperson Katie Foti said it needs to hire 60 people, so it can reopen all its branches 5 days a week. She hopes that will happen by early fall.
Related
The Parks and Recreation Department is suffering a lifeguard shortage, but most other seasonal positions have been filled. A spokesperson says it took longer than usual.
The Philadelphia Police Department is trying to fill 260 positions for officers, and the Philadelphia Fire Department needs 450 firefighters and paramedics to fill all the positions in its budget.
Philadelphia residents can keep track of trash and recycling collections in their neighborhood with the Streets Department's PickupPHL platform online by clicking here.
Related
