eThekwini Municipality said on Tuesday that the City's refuse removal services have resumed after its Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) employees reported to work after they had downed tools last week.
On Friday, hundreds of eThekwini's EPWP workers embarked on a strike demanding to be employed by the City on full-time basis and demanding an increase to their R2 500 salary per month.
During their strike, the EPWP workers allegedly trashed the city's roads with rubbish bins, leaving a trail of destruction on the roads in the Durban inner city and also prevented employees from Cleansing and Solid Waste Unit from cleaning the city.
On Monday, the municipality gave all striking EPWP workers an ultimatum to report to work for the evening shift or risk having their contracts terminated.
"Before the ultimatum was given to EPWP employees, the municipality had an extensive consultation with the employees on Sunday where they agreed to return to work with immediate effect," eThekwini said in a statement.
"However, they continued to embark on a strike action demanding full-time employment, while preventing some Cleaning and Solid Waste Unit employees from executing their duties."
The municipality further said that human resource capacity had been increased to ensure that the refuse removal backlog is cleared by the end of the week.