It has been confirmed that binmen in Birmingham will continue to strike until September as talks over job losses and pay broke down.
Starting from July 28th, refuse collection workers will be putting down their tools for three hours each day, from 6am to 8am and 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
Unite regional officer Lynne Shakespeare said: “We met with council bosses last week in the hope of agreeing on a form of words that would enable us to enter into meaningful negotiations to resolve the dispute.
“The blame for any missed collections rests squarely with council bosses who have shown themselves incapable of running the service, let alone capable of making any meaningful or positive changes to it.”
Currently, the cost per household (paid through council tax) for each weekly collection is 92p.
Jacqui Kennedy, Corporate Director for Place at Birmingham City Council spoke recently about the industrial action and understood the frustration of Brummies – but acknowledged that changes need to be made to refuse collection in the city.
She said: “I understand why the industrial action over the future of waste collection services in Birmingham is causing concern for many people.
“We are proposing changes to the current working pattern for waste collection crews – shifting from a four day week of just over nine hours per day to a five day week of just over seven hours per day. This will result in the deletion of 113 posts – but it is anticipated that all post holders with an appropriate skills match will be offered new council jobs at the same pay grade.
“It is extremely important that we move away from relying on expensive agency staff. At the moment 200 out of 595 employees in refuse collection are hired from agencies.
“We intend to replace agency staff with up to 246 full-time staff employed directly by the council. All of these new permanent employees will enjoy the associated benefits that come with working for the council such as pension, holiday entitlement and sick pay.
“We believe that the combination of these changes will deliver the savings and improvements (such as fewer missed collections) we need and you demand.”
Read the full statement on the council website here.
Since the industrial action started, the number of missed bin collections have soared by 5,000 a week.
