Street Sweeper
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For the poorest members of society in Dutan, street sweeping is a way to make a little money. The municipal offices open their doors in the early hours of the morning just before sunrise and hire whoever shows up to clean the streets. Work starts at dawn and involves shoveling all the animal manure and manmade excrement off the streets. Buckets of waste are brought to special yards near the outskirts where it needed to be sorted. Certain types of poo could be distributed to farmers as fertilizers, others sold to tanners, and others still were either compressed into bricks or burned for the ash. Foremen were responsible for checking off each bucket brought in, and people were paid in vouchers which could be used to buy a day's ration of food. There was a minimum quota to be paid of five buckets, and the most industrious workers for the day earned extra rations.
For the people in the yards, they earned enough for a day's ration of food so long as they stayed on site for the work day. They also tended to start later in the day, so while the people cleaning the streets started at dawn and ended in the early afternoon, the yard workers started in mid morning and worked until sundown. There's no age requirement, so it's also not uncommon to see children working the streets.
Despite being a dirty and laborious job, the city recognizes it as extremely useful, and it's also a chance for poor people to earn more than just the city's wages. Anything of value that they find on the streets is theirs to keep. The black markets pay well for these goods and don't question where they come from. It also helps keep the cities cleaner and sanitary. It's important to keep up appearances to visitors, and street sweepers fill an important function. After festivals, there's incredible demand for street sweepers, and the city is willing to pay double for services rendered. Also, so long as the minimum quota is met, it's a guaranteed day's worth of food. Some people collect the minimum to get paid and only return at the end of the working day to collect their voucher and trade it for food.
Type
Public Services
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