Adur and Worthing bin strike looks set to enter second week

Between 44 and 60 workers at Adur and Worthing Councils’ refuse, recycling and cleansing service began a two week strike on Monday (March 14).

The councils have asked residents not to phone them about the strikes because the customer service team ‘is busy helping people across a range of services including benefit and council tax enquiries’.

Residents are instead being asked to visit the councils’ website for information as disruption continues.

The council employs around 151 refuse workers and street cleaners in total so while no refuse, recycling, green waste, commercial waste or bulky items can be collected from homes during the strike, litter bins, dog waste bins, and clinical waste can still be emptied and collected.

On Wednesday additional slots were introduced at waste and recycling sites in Shoreham and Worthing in an attempt to stop rubbish piling up.

Why does the strike continue when a pay rise is on offer?

GMB members are currently striking over pay and conditions as they say the pay rise on the table is not enough .

Adur and Worthing councils started a review of the service in October and entered into negotiations with UNISON – the union it formally recognises.

As a result, the council has offered staff in its refuse, recycling, and cleansing service pay rises of between 6 and 12.7 per cent, depending on the role.

But a GMB representative says the union has ‘serious misgivings’ about the offer.

Gary Palmer, a GMB regional organiser, said: “We have seen that another trade union has signed off on a deal, but this has nothing to do with our members.

“Our members want better and they want it now.

“We have some severe misgivings about the pay offer – some get a pay uplift now and some later, some get it through bonuses, some through their hourly rate and some won’t get it at all.

“That’s not the GMB way – GMB won’t leave anyone behind.”

Why don’t they negotiate?

Ed Crouch, deputy leader and executive member for digital and environmental services at Worthing Borough Council, says the offer on the table is ‘fair’.

Deputy leader of Adur District Council, Angus Dunn, said the council had offered to meet GMB ‘nine times so far’.

“Unison is the recognised union,” he wrote on Twitter, ” [The] dispute does seem to be because of a Unison / GMB power struggle.”

A statement from the councils says: “We have repeatedly offered to meet with the GMB union representatives to discuss their concerns but they have ignored or refused each offer.

“The pay rises we have negotiated with staff and UNISON are a good deal for our workers but the GMB appears to want nothing to do with them because it wasn’t involved in the negotiations.

“The GMB continues to claim that we are ignoring it but this could not be further from the truth.”

Any talks between the councils and GMB would be informal discussions.

This is because the council’s recognised union is UNISON.

GMB could ask for joint recognition under trade union law and the Local Democracy Reporting Service has approached the union for comment on this.

What happens if an agreement can’t be reached?

GMB says its members plan to continue the strike until March 27 if a solution is not found.

This means 82,000 properties could continue to be without collections.

Mr Palmer said GMB members had been balloted on the initial two-week strike, which would continue ‘unless the council choose to meaningfully engage in negotiations’.

Split opinion on strikes

There is split opinion on the strikes following reports that some refuse workers are having to choose between ‘heating and eating’.

Worthing and Adur’s Labour Groups said they supported the strike.

A joint response reads: “We are fully supportive of our staff taking action but think that it could have been avoided through regular and constructive communication by the current Conservative administration with staff and their chosen unions.

“We are aware that these staff members worked tirelessly during the pandemic, and indeed we stood on our doorsteps and clapped for them, so now we need to ensure that they have the highest level of working conditions that it is possible for us to provide.”

Labour said a six per cent rise is ‘not the reward refuse workers are looking for’ in light of rising inflation.

Residents have mixed feelings

Residents have differing opinions on the strike.

Members of the Adur and Worthing Bin Watch group – which was set up when fortnightly bin collections were introduced a few years ago – largely supported the strike.

One member said: “I support the strike, I think people are being pretty mean about the bin men.

“Maybe we should all take our rubbish to the tip so they haven’t got so much catch up?”

Another member wrote: “They should be on decent salaries for what is a dirty job and, more than that, they’re the council’s eyes on the ground.”

But a third said: “Up to 12.7 per cent is pretty impressive given the wage rises of many other public sector workers.”

Mark Kelly, who owns Bright n Shine Bin Company, said: “The strike has affected my company as we are unable to provide our wheelie bin cleaning service, resulting in a loss of two weeks’ income.”

Not all waste companies are at a loss though, as rubbish collection businesses come forward to offer their services during the strike.

Local councils recommend checking a company’s waste carrier licence before asking them to dispose of rubbish for you.

Licence numbers can be checked against the Environment Agency’s database here: https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers