A number of Kabul Municipality employees on Wednesday said they work seven days a week but that wages are much lower compared to other government officials.

They said they do not get days off, nor do they get public holidays off.

“Today, my job was (to clean) from Wazir Akbar Khan to the Massoud Circle. I work eight hours a day but I don’t have days off, not even holidays. Every day I clean the streets of Kabul,” said Shah Jahan Jalali, a worker from the Sanitation Department at Kabul Municipality.

He said he lives in a one-room house which he inherited from his father.

Shah Jahan’s wife, Najiba Noori, said her husband’s salary does not cover their expenses. 

“I struggle to distribute and allocated money for our needs from the 6,000 AFs monthly salary of my husband. My husband’s salary is very low,” she said.

 “I have two sisters. We go to school. I am in fourth grade. We need notebooks, pens and other things for school but my father’s salary is not enough for us,” said Sadaf, Shah Jahan’s daughter.