Labour and Conservatives disagree on if Adur and Worthing bin strike could have been avoided

Adur and Worthing Councils’ Joint Strategic Committee backed the decision to urgently release reserves during the refuse worker strike.

Although an agreement was reached between the councils and the two unions representing workers (GMB and Unison), the strike and associated salary review has ‘significant unbudgeted cost implications’.

The grand total is £1,818,790, according to a report to the JSC, though existing contingency budgets for pay agreements bring the net total to £1,071,340.

A total of £178,120 was factored in to the reserves for 2020-21 and Chief Executive Catherine Howe also released £580,610 to address the cost for 2022-23.

“Nobody’s living their best life in the middle of a dispute like this and I want to thank everybody for their efforts in getting it resolved,” Dr Howe said.

“We did take the decision, in consultation with leaders at the time, in order to move forward to resolve the dispute and as you can see that has had a financial implication.

“It was very much seen as necessary to move us forward but we will be living with the implications of that decision for some time.”

Opposition leader Kevin Jenkins (Con, Goring), who was Worthing Borough Council leader at the time of the strike, thanked officers and Dr Howe for ‘ensuring matters progressed as swiftly as possible’ but expressed concerns about the ongoing financial impact.

“I think without a robust approach, the figures in this report that we see today would have been even more damaging,” he said.

He pointed out the advice received in January – that the council should only use its ‘relatively low level of reserves as a funding source of last resort’.

Despite the use of reserves, the councils will need to find an extra £312,610 during the 2023-2024 financial year and possibly beyond.

Chief financial officer Sarah Gobey said the council will face ‘significant risks this financial year’ even in addition to the strike and pay agreement.

Since the budgets were agreed in February, inflation has hit nine per cent; pay negotiations for council staff are ongoing; and the council is facing rising energy costs.

“We are expecting cost pressures in Worthing in the region of about three quarters of a million excluding this cost of strike action,” said Ms Gobey.

“As a result will be recommending a programme of action and a review of all of our major projects.”

WBC’s executive member for the environment, Vicki Wells (Lab, Marine), believes the strike ‘could have been avoided’.

“We need to rebuild the reputation of the council as one that respects its employees and values their dedicated hard work,” she said.

But Adur District Council leader Neil Parkin (Con, Hillside) said: “For the record, the GMB wouldn’t even tell us why they were on strike until about six weeks into it.

“We were trying all along the line to find out what was wrong but no they wouldn’t tell us.

“So I’d like to congratulate the officers on the work they did settling it and unfortunately, there’s financial repercussions but it’s something we will have to live with.”