In Tashkent, female employees of health clinics, schools, and kindergartens are forced to clean in low-income houses in the Sergeli district for free. Nurses complain that otherwise they are threatened with dismissal and withholding from their wages.
Forced Saturday cleaning day
In Tashkent, female employees of health clinics, schools, and kindergartens were forced to clean apartments in multistory buildings built last year in the Sergeli district of the Uzbek capital. In particular, on January 17, six female employees of clinic №53 and three female employees of clinic №54 were sent to clean apartments in multistory buildings, intended mainly for low-income citizens.
In a conversation with “Ozodlik,” a nurse from one of the Tashkent clinics said that last week she was cleaning apartments in new multistory buildings in the Sergeli district.
– Every day ten female employees from our clinic are sent to Sergeli. We come to work at 8 o’clock in the morning. Then we are taken to the Sergeli district in an ambulance. We work there until 5 or 6 p.m. We sweep the apartments, clean windows, bathrooms, and toilets. Our manager told us: “If someone asks, say that you are participating in khashar (a community cleaning day),” – a nurse from one of Tashkent polyclinics anonymously told us.
According to another nurse from Tashkent, those female employees who refuse to clean apartments are threatened with dismissal and withholdings from their wages.
– One of my colleagues told the manager that she cannot clean apartments because of her poor health, and the manager yelled at her. According to my friend, who works in a neighboring clinic, her manager threatened to reduce the wages of nurses who refused to clean apartments. We were afraid of this, so we were forced to go and clean those apartments. This “khashar” started on December 30. Even on December 31, the New Year’s holiday, we had to clean those apartments. Female employees of clinics in other Tashkent districts were on cleaning duty last month. “Female employees of all district clinics take turns to clean those apartments,” – a female employee of a clinic in the Yunusabad district told “Ozodlik”.
In Tashkent, female employees of schools and kindergartens are sent to clean apartments in multistory buildings in the Sergeli district even on weekends.
– Every Saturday and Sunday, one of our female employees goes to the Sergeli district to clean those apartments. We all go there at our own expense. In addition, we also buy cleaning supplies at our own expense. We have to bring our own rags to clean floors and windows, buckets, mops, and brooms. All of these we buy at our own expense, instead of spending money for our children’s needs,” – a female employee of one of the kindergartens in the Chilanzar district told “Ozodlik”.
However, an employee of the city mayor’s office denied the information that female employees of clinics, schools, and kindergartens are forced to clean apartments in multistory buildings in the Sergeli district. He claimed that all employees of public sector organizations clean the apartments voluntarily.
Cheap multistory buildings blueprint
Let us remind you that on September 25, 2016, during a meeting with residents of dilapidated apartment buildings in the Sergeli district and the residential compound “Sputnik” (“Yuldosh”), then-acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev promised that by 2022, there will be 500 modern multistory houses built for low-income citizens in these areas of the Uzbek capital. This project was supposed to provide apartments for 30 thousand families.
Source: UGF
