Breakthrough offer brings end to bin dispute closer

A BREAKTHROUGH has finally come on the Capital's bin dispute – on a deal that was offered to staff nearly a month ago.

Weeks of turmoil on the city's streets are expected to come to an end on Friday when bin men are set to call off their work-to-rule after the council formalised the detail of its deal to unions.

But the Evening News understands that the offer agreed last night involved the same figures that were sent to staff on 7 July.

Union leaders, who insist that the deal was never before put to them on paper by council officials, are set to recommend to members that they approve the deal.

If they accept, the bin men could resume normal work on Friday, after five weeks of mounting rubbish on the city's streets.

Questions are now being asked about why an apparent breakdown in communication has caused such disruption for residents across the city.

Council leader Jenny Dawe said last night that Unite had agreed to recommend that the current action be called off.

"Management repeated the offer that would prevent most staff from losing significant amounts of money in return for the modernisation of the service – including new flexible working arrangements and the end to the reliance on overtime."

Union leaders confirmed today that the settlement agreed last night was largely based on figures outlined by city leader Jenny Dawe in an e-mail to "city stakeholders" ten days ago.

But unions say last night's deal is the first time something concrete has been put to them on paper.

Sandy Smart, regional industrial organiser at Unite, said:

"The discussions were pretty much based on what Jenny Dawe said last week, with a bit of firmer detail on shift allowance and patterns.

"Once we get the detail in black and white we'll take it back to the members and hopefully we'll have a resolution. We have been asking all along for something to be put down in black and white to take back to the members."

The council's proposal – which would see refuse collectors become neighbourhood environment workers – would result in basic pay changing from 12,234 to 15,986.

Under the new scheme, staff would not receive the current bonus of up to 6,729 for full attendance. However, they would instead be eligible for a "shift payment" bonus of up to 4,573.

Councillor Andrew Burns, leader of the Labour group on the city council, said: "If the news is correct and we have a resolution, I very much welcome that and would like to congratulate both the council and the union.

"But one has to ask: if the offer is only clear now to the unions, what have the administration been doing since 25 June? It seems like it is only now that they have formalised the offer. If they had done this quicker, we would not have had the month of disruption we have suffered.

"I would imagine that there will be considerable anger that this could have been avoided. I don't believe anything has changed – this has all been about communication.

"Through the whole of July we have suffered reduced levels of service unnecessarily. The administration appear to have been sleeping on the job."