A SANITATION worker in a U.S. suburb has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for working too early.

    Kevin McGill had been working for only a few months for Waste Management Inc., a company contracted to do sanitation work in Sandy Springs, north of Atlanta, when he was cited for picking up trash just after 5 a.m. one morning, according to WSB-TV.

    That violated a city ordinance which limits trash pickup to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The statute is in place because residents have complained that early pick-ups disrupt their sleep.

    When McGill showed up to court to answer the citation, Sandy Springs prosecutor Bill Riley sought the maximum punishment against him — 30 days in jail.

    And in a trashy move, a judge granted Riley the request.

    “Fines don’t seem to work,” Riley said. “The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.”

    Riley, who jailed another sanitation worker for the same infraction last year, said that residents swamp 911 with calls when trash pick-up occurs too early in the morning.

    “The solicitor said it’s automatic jail time,” McGill said. “He didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. I said it’s my first time.”

    “I was stunned. I didn’t know what to think. I was shocked,” he added.

    McGill, 48, a family man, did not have an attorney during his sentencing. He pleaded no contest and took the punishment, agreeing to serve his 30 days spread out on the weekends. He began serving the sentence last weekend and will do so for 14 more.

    “I just want this to be over with,” McGill said. “I’m away from my family, my wife, and she’s got to take care of the two little boys and I have four dogs.”

    McGill has an attorney now, and she believes the sentence is too harsh.

    “Give him a warning,” the lawyer, Kimberly Bandoh, said. “I mean he’s the employee. He’s not the employer. Sentencing him to jail is doing what?”

    But Riley appears to be unmoved, saying that McGill, and not his employer, is responsible for operating his own garbage truck.

    “The company doesn’t start that truck up,” Riley said. “The company doesn’t drive that truck down the street.”

    A representative for Waste Management went to the courthouse with McGill, who expected to be ordered to pay up to a US$1,000 fine, Bandoh said.

    Sharon Kraun, a spokesman for Sandy Springs, said that McGill’s citation stemmed from an incident where his truck had been photographed by a resident.

    She said that Waste Management, which had amassed thousands of dollars in fines with the municipality last year, suspended McGill for violating its policies before he went to court.

    Waste Management could not answer questions about McGill’s employment history with the company as of Saturday morning and said it was “currently still investigating all the facts in the case.”(SD-Agencies)