A group of street cleaners descended on the headquarters of the National Solid Waste Manage-ment Authority (NSWMA) yesterday to demand payment from the agency they claim has swept away their concerns for payment due to them.

A group of irate workers demanded to speak with the management of the government agency, which has not turned over money to contractors.

The workers, who are normally paid every two weeks, said they had not received a cheque since late July. The absence of this income for them, they said, had affected them severely, with several of the protesters saying they had been unable to send their children to school, buy food for their households, or fill medical prescriptions for illnesses.

An elderly Ucina Lowe was particularly peeved, as she had been waiting for weeks to fill a prescription for an eye disease.

No money since July

"We can't get no money since July. I can tell you, nuff pickney no inna school. Me hungry. Me need fi buy me prescription fi me eye drops and me cyaah fill it. When wi a get wi money? We want we money now!" Lowe said.

The street cleaners had the same cry. After working hard hours in the sun - cleaning refuse from plastic bottles to dead dogs - they say they have been ignored by the management of the NSWMA.

"I have a child a go a school and I don't get paid from July and I can't send her to school. This morning, my daughter haffi use lime leaf and the last a di sugar inna di tin to mek tea. Dem ting de nuh right," an upset Lorna Brown said.

Marjorie McKain, a former contractor responsible for paying the street sweepers, is sympathising with them. She is also taking task with the executive director of the NSWMA, Joan Gordon-Webley, who, she claimed, said on a radio programme on Friday that contractors were being paid.

McKain, whose contract was terminated yesterday, said that she had not received any money for her workers and was not impressed, as that had created the impression among the cleaners that they were being shafted by her.

When The Gleaner left the premises yesterday, the workers had gone into a meeting with the management who did not want media present. When The Gleaner contacted another contractor, Michelle Stone, later last evening, she said the situation remained the same, with the workers being promised that they would be paid on Wednesday.