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• Heinz set for multi-million pound hit as strike action to resume at HQ
• Legal aid cuts ‘could hit 100,000 vulnerable people’
• Liberal Democrat MPs urged to scupper EMA plans by Unite
• Unite to ballot its members at the Heinz plant in Wigan after a new offer was made by the company
• Unite brands 2,000 Manchester city council job cuts as ‘savage’
• Union accuses Birmingham city council of escalating dispute with refuse workers
• Hull City council cuts target disabled adults in Hull
• Unite to stage mass meetings over 2,000 Manchester city council job cuts
• Speech and language therapists in Southwark PCT begin ballot for strike action
• 'Leaves on the line' excuse for growth figures won't wash

Union accuses Birmingham city council of escalating dispute with refuse workers

5 January 2011

Unite, Britain's biggest union, has accused Birmingham city council (BCC) of bullying its refuse collection workforce and escalating the current dispute with them, after it emerged that the council is now threatening to change the way refuse collectors are paid.

Refuse workers are in dispute with BCC because it is cutting their pay by as much as £4,000 a year. BCC is now escalating the dispute by threatening to pay the refuse collectors not by their contracted hours but by the amount of waste collected. This would have an enormous impact, reducing wages and introducing financial instability for employees.

Unite regional secretary Gerard Coyne said: "Any change to the way our members are paid would be a blatant breach of contract. We believe the council is bullying workers who are in lawful dispute with their employer. Unite will defend its members and pursue the council legally if necessary."

Unite regional officer Lynne Shakespeare said: "We've already told the council that it is spending more effort and taxpayers' money to break this strike than it would cost to resolve it. The council recruited 200 casual staff to break the strike, it cost the council £20,000 just to provide work-wear for them, before any wages and dust wagons are paid for.

"The council has claimed its lead council officer cllr Rudge has met the unions 22 times, as the Unite lead negotiator I can confirm that I've not met him once. Instead of playing fast and loose this council should sit around the table and negotiate meaningfully to resolve this dispute."

BCC refuse collectors took strike action on 20 December and have not ruled out further strike dates. The workers are furious that the council is cutting their pay by as much as £4,000 a year. Unite has accused the Tory-Lib Dem coalition controlled council of incompetence for removing an enhancement worth around £4,000 a year, that Unite warned last year was not equality proofed. BCC chose to ignore the union's advice and alternative suggestions and went ahead with introducing the £4,000 enhancement. BCC now says that its legal advisors have deemed that the enhancements have not been equality proofed and are removing them.

ENDS

Contact: Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315