It seem whenever there’s a holiday, there is no trash collection on the holiday & all the rest of the normal pickups are pushed back a day, with the normal Friday pickup on Saturday.
With today’s (& next weeks holidays) they work Tues - Sat instead of Mon - Fri, which means that they don’t really get a day off because it’s being ‘taken’ from their weekend. At least around here they always work 5 days a week.
With a place like a hospital, there were probably no elective surgeries today, the admin staff was off, & most of the staff that is there usually trades off - I’d get Thanksgiving off in exchange for working today. IOW, some people are truly ‘off’ today & don’t need to make it up.
I would guess that their union contracts address this issue. Either they get overtime pay for the extra day as well as holiday pay for the missed day, or there are part-time employees or floaters who pick up the extra day, so that the regular guy (or gal) only works four days that week.
Our municipal trash collection takes place four days a week. On the fifth day they schedule “special pickups” for oversize items and other stuff. In a week with a holiday they push they don’t run special pickups so everything else fits into a four day week.
I’d bet that not everyone is working on bulk/special pickup days because there are so many less houses to be serviced. You’re substituting 4 for 5, but net result is the same.
That’s the story around here. DPW/Sanitation is one of the stronger union operations in Pittsburgh. We’re talking Teamsters and one of the more active and powerful locals.
I don’t know if they get holidays or holiday pay, but the pickup stays the same except for two holidays per year. I think it’s Christmas and New Years.
Where I live everyone get five weeks of paid vacation each year, plus holidays. Trash pickup cancellations for holidays will be corrected for by rearranging pickup-schedules and/or paying overtime for the next following days. I.e. if Monday is a holiday the crews will do part of Monday’s route spread out over the next days and evenings.
They do get holidays in the UK, all the bank (public) holidays. They’re paid, or at least are at the moment (they’re still council employees). It’s the law. Waiting an extra day to have your rubbish collected is not that big a deal.
I’m not sure how it works out with actual work time because extra work still has to be done one way or another, but it would be illegal to give them bank holidays off but then expect them to do extra, obligatory unpaid hours to make up for it. Obvs that happens in some jobs but if it’s in such an obvious way as asking them to work extra hours to collect rubbish then it would not fly.
In the UK public transport is generally shut on bank holidays so that would be an extra reason not to expect binmen to come to work - it would be a logistical headache. And given that a lot of people leave cities and go to the suburbs for Christmas (and the same for some of the other holidays) you end up with atypical rubbish disposal rates that are probably best dealt with by dealing with it by area rather than just saying everyone come in, it’s like every other Monday.
I’m in suburban Chicago; the town where we live has contracted trash collection out to a private company for the 21 years that we’ve lived here.
I’m fairly positive that the folks who pick up our trash do get holidays off, as a holiday during the week always bumps our collection day back a day. Our trash is normally collected on Fridays; if there’s a holiday during the week (like this week), our trash won’t get collected until Saturday.
Around here they just double on the next day. So today was Monday and Tuesday routes both. I know they start early, because my place is one of the very first in the morning on Monday, and they came by 90 minutes early today. I don’t know if they run late too, or run extra trucks or what all they do.
Schenectady had a system where the pickup day moved when there was a holiday. So a Monday pickup would come on Tuesday Tuesday to Wednesday, etc. Friday would be moved to the next Monday. Good for the workers, but it could confuse homeowners.
Trash pickup is from contracted private companies around here. The town where I lived in NY had their own sanitation department and the employees enjoyed the same benefits as other town workers, including paid holidays. IIRC correctly there was no regular pickup on Fridays so when a holiday shifted the schedule they’d just hold the usual Friday maintenance until the following week so the trucks could go out on the road.
Are you sure they always work Mon- Fri? Because here, they usually work a 5 day week, but there are garbage pickups somewhere everyday except Sunday , as far as I know ( and maybe there are Sunday pickups and I just don’t know about them) Some streets get pickups Mon and Thursday, others Tuesday and Friday and others Wed and Saturday. So some crews are working Saturday as part of their normal schedule. If there is a holiday Monday, they don’t work on one of their regular days off to make up for it and if they have to work on one of their regular days off for any reason *, they get time and a half.
Although when there is a Monday holiday , you’re supposed to put the trash out for Tuesday pickup that’s really just a matter of “when to put the trash out”. Because it may get picked up Tuesday, or Wednesday or occasionally not until the next scheduled pickup on Thursday.
*usually related to snow removal - either actually removing the snow or falling behind on pickups due to snow removal