Binmen in Sandwell today said they had voted in favour of industrial action in the final ballot over a long-running pay dispute.

Members of Unite held the vote and served the council with 28 days notice of strike action.

The Electoral Reform Society is now counting the results of the official postal vote and will return them on August 9.

But a show-of-hands among the 90 members revealed 89 per cent had voted in favour of a walkout.

Union GMB issued its final ballot yesterday after serving official notice to the council. GMB members are also expected to vote in favour of the strike. Unite’s Brian Vickers said: “We have given the council 28 days notice and could strike any time after that. I delivered it by hand to chief executive Allison Fraser.

“We’re hoping to resolve the situation without having to strike and sort things out amicably, rather than resorting to industrial action.”

GMB branch secretary Darren James added: “Our ballot forms have gone out for a two-week period and we issued notice on the council on July 19.

“The ballot will close around August 10, and we will issue further notice after the results.

“We are meeting with the council to seek a resolution before it gets to that.

“We are meeting with the council leader Councillor Darren Cooper to settle the issues.

“We want to settle this because we know the agency staff are costing the council dear.”

If strikes go ahead, 93 of the 136 workers within Sandwell Council’s refuse department could walk out by September 6.

As a short-term benefit, the ‘go slow’ period, which has seen rubbish pile up on streets across the borough, ended on July 16.

Binmen working to rule in Sandwell cost taxpayers £250,000 from June 14 to July 19 and resulted in overflowing bin bags spilling out into the streets. The council was forced to bring in 35 to 40 agency staff  a day and extra vehicles to clear the backlog, and taxpayers footed the bill.

The dispute began after single status pay scales were brought in at every local authority in January.  Under the new arrangements most binmen in the borough stand to lose £2,900 each.

Mr Vickers added: “We will join GMB in meetings with the council and I believe there’s a good chance of finding an amicable solution.”