Birmingham City Council urged to ‘restart negotiations’ amid ongoing bin strike tensions
Birmingham City Council has been urged to return to the negotiating table with Unite the union in a bid to resolve the ongoing bins strike plaguing the city.
September marks six months since the strike went all-out, leading to further misery and turbulence for Brummies across the city.
The industrial action, triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite, continues to cause disruption – recycling collections, the garden waste service and pest control services, except for rat treatments, all remain suspended.
Meanwhile there are still areas blighted by rubbish despite the Labour-run council’s waste collection improving compared to the height of the strike.
Birmingham City Council confirmed in the summer that it was ending talks with Unite to solve the bins crisis – but there have been recent calls for negotiations to resume.
Councillor Jane Jones told a council meeting this week: “Within the press, it’s widely discussed that the way forward with this dispute, which is upsetting all the residents across Birmingham, is you come together and negotiate.
“Even on Sunday morning on Midlands Politics, one of our own Birmingham MPs Al Carns said the two sides need to come together.
“Since this dispute is dragging on now, we need to get a solution to this.
“Isn’t it about time that we came back to the negotiating table and found a solution, because that’s the only way we’re going to move forward?"
Council leader John Cotton responded by saying there had been “extensive attempts at negotiation under the umbrella of ACAS [the independent arbitration service]".
But he once again made clear that one issue has been the council’s equal pay “red lines” that it refuses to cross, adding that doing so would risk further financial pain.
The council’s equal pay failures will cost £250 million to settle with workers it discrimated against – as long as there are no more slip-ups, Birmingham Live previously reported.
The council is desperate to avoid future gender-based pay claims linked to the city’s waste services.
“A number of proposals and offers were discussed through that Acas process,” Councillor Cotton said at the meeting.
“We have to respect the confidentiality [of that process] and I’ve been clear many times in the past I’m not going to break that confidentiality or imperil that process by commenting publicly upon it.”
He continued: “It is unfortunate that the proposals that were put forward by the council were rejected by Unite the union.
“Indeed the propositions that have been put forward by Unite were not acceptable to this council, given the absolute priority to protect our financial position and not to further imperil the situation with regard to equal pay.
“I’ve been clear throughout that I wanted to find a negotiated settlement to this, we really want to see this dispute brought to a close and workers return to work.
“However, we cannot cross those red lines.
“That would be a betrayal of the people of this city who look to us to ensure we are defending the finances of this council and that we do not create a further equal pay liability.”
He added that such a liability could ‘dog this council for years to come’ and has already cost the authority “many, many millions”.
The council leader’s latest comments on the bins strike came ahead of plans for bin workers and their supporters to march through the city centre on Saturday (September 18).
The bins strike was initially sparked by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role.
Striking workers have raised concerns about pay while the Labour-run council’s leadership has repeatedly insisted a “fair and reasonable” offer had been made.
