Blow for council as pay row bin men back more action

Published on Friday 13 August 2010 19:11

BIN men have voted overwhelmingly in favour of continuing their industrial action after rejecting a new pay offer.

Every refuse worker who is a member of the Unite trade union was invited to a workplace ballot at the city council's Powderhall depot yesterday.

And 84 per cent of the 153 workers voted to reject the proposals, which many bin men say would see them lose thousands of pounds a year.

It means that there is still no sign of an end to the bin men's 14-month work-to-rule. City council chiefs today admitted that the result was "disappointing" and insisted that they have done all they can to minimise the amount that individual employees will lose.

Yesterday's ballot was arranged after union leaders had to call a halt to a postal ballot launched last month amid concerns that some ballot papers were being photocopied and some papers had been sent to incorrect addresses.

One bin man - who did not want to be named - said: "What they are offering is a 2500 pay cut. It is not a good deal for us. I am delighted that there was such a strong rejection because nobody should have accepted that."

Council officials have been liaising with staff who were taking part in the work-to-rule in "focus groups" in a bid to overcome some of the issues that have caused the action.

The changes to wages are being enforced to protect the council from millions of pounds of equal pay claims. Councillors have blamed previous administrations for not taking action on modernising pay quickly enough - leaving the current leadership to force it through.

A city council spokesman said: "While we haven't yet had formal notification from the union, it would appear that our proposals have been rejected.

"This is very disappointing news given the efforts we have made for more than a year to find a way to modernise the service and minimise the pay lost by staff.

"Once we have received formal notification we will review the council's position."

Opposition councillors rounded on leaders of the Liberal Democrat/SNP administration, saying they are to blame for the ongoing stalemate.

Councillor Andrew Burns, leader of the Labour group, said: "This underlines the complete lack of leadership in trying to resolve this dispute, which has incredibly now been going on for 14 months.

"I would defy anyone to find a local government work-to-rule that has dragged on for this long."

No-one at Unite was available to comment.