Rubbish has piled up in Birmingham again after agency staff hired to help clear up the mess also went on strike because of ‘bullying’ allegations
Birmingham has been hit by yet another bin collection crisis after its service was suspended following “mass protests” by staff. Agency bin workers, hired to cover Birmingham City Council employees who were already on strike in a long-running dispute, yesterday joined “mass pickets and protests”. | They had voted in favour of the latest strike, citing allegations of “bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting”. All-out strikes by council employees began in March after members of the Unite trade union walked out in a dispute with the council over pay and jobs.
The new strikes have taken place at three bin depots. And the suspension has led to rubbish bags piled outside homes and on green spaces, with litter strewn across roads.
A city council spokesman said: “Due to expected mass pickets and protests across our waste depots we have taken the decision to suspend collections today. “We apologise for the inconvenience. Collections will resume tomorrow. We aim to complete all collections by Sunday. Please leave your bin out as normal.”
Unite said agency staff were refusing to cross the picket lines of striking bin workers due to “unsustainable workloads and the toxic and bullying workplace culture”.
They also accused the council of “bullying” agency bin workers by creating a “league table” pinned on their staff room wall that ranked their driving performance based on tachograph “infringements”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham Council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
Agency workers have now joined with directly employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.” Birmingham City Council said it was “disappointed” that the dispute had not been resolved.
The first dispute between Unite and Birmingham City Council involved on-off industrial action for several weeks from January, before all-out strikes began on March 11.
Waste collection and the recycling officer role was scrapped after the first dispute, which Unite said would result in affected workers losing up to £8,000 a year. The council insisted it had made a “fair and reasonable offer”.
In March, locals began spotting rats on the streets of Birmingham amid the ongoing bin strikes. Pest controllers said at the time that the rodents could be seen “on a daily basis”, scurrying among the mountains of uncollected waste piled by the roadside.
Stuart Howes, head of Greenlab Pest Control, said at the time that his company was handling 30 to 50 per cent more call-outs. “Rats are certainly gaining size due the on-going supply of food that has been left on the doorsteps,” he said.
