Bin lorry drivers face axe as strike talks fail

Piles of rubbish, like in this picture from April, have built up on the city's streets during the dispute

Talks to resolve Birmingham's bin strike have broken down completely and some bin lorry drivers are now at risk of compulsory redundancy, the BBC understands.

Conciliation service Acas has been mediating in the negotiations since May but the council has now said the authority is "walking away".

Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton said the authority had "reached the absolute limit" of what it can offer in talks with the union.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham repeated earlier claims that the council had resorted to a "fire and rehire" strategy and she said threats would not work.

Mountains of rubbish have been seen across the city since bin collection workers walked out in January, with an all-out strike going on since March.

Cotton said the council had negotiated in good faith but the union had rejected all offers the authority had made.

He also said the authority would "press ahead to both address our equal pay risk and make much needed improvements to the waste service".

The plan does mean waste service staff jobs would be axed, Cotton explained, with voluntary redundancy options remaining on the table, as well as "opportunities for training and redeployment across the council."

Cotton had previously said "nobody needs to lose out", but admitted last month for the first time that some refuse workers would lose pay under the council's proposals.

The union walked out on strike after claiming 170 workers would face losing up to £8,000 a year due to the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.

John Cotton said the authority had "reached the absolute limit" of what it can offer in the talks

Ms Graham said bin workers were striking over what was, to some of them, cuts of up to a quarter of their wages and they have an industrial action mandate until December.

She said they were told to accept lower terms or be made redundant.

"Let's be very clear, what Birmingham City Council has proposed is fire and rehire in a Labour council under a Labour government," Ms Graham added.

"But let me be clear, the threats won't work. (Labour deputy leader) Angela Rayner and John Cotton's shambolic mismanagement of this dispute just makes it more likely that the strikes will continue into Christmas and beyond."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the government had worked intensively with the council to clear the rubbish backlog and clean streets.

"Our position remains clear: Unite should suspend the strike, and work with the council on a sustainable way forward," he added.

The council is now set to begin a consultation on the future of the Band 4 drivers role and the BBC understands some drivers are now at risk of compulsory redundancy.

Under the council's job re-evaluation process, the role of driver is set to be downgraded.

Of the 400-strong refuse workforce, 170 are drivers.

Sources told the BBC that about a third have already accepted voluntary redundancy packages.

A picture from 24 June shows how bins have overflowed over the last six months

One bin worker, who is an active union member but asked not to be named, told the BBC that the council's offer was inadequate.

"For them to say they are walking away when they haven't come to the table is absolutely absurd," he said.

"All we want as refuse workers is to go back to work. The majority of us live in the city that we also work in. We just want all this sorted out."

But, Cotton said that while being committed to creating an "efficient, improved service" that meets the city's needs, the authority would not "jeopardise the considerable progress we have made in our financial recovery" by offering more to bin workers than was affordable.

Acas spokesman Kevin Rowan said: "It's unfortunate that this round of talks have concluded without resolution.

"Acas remains available to both parties should the situation change."

'Get bins emptied'

While the strike continued, the leader said the council would continue to provide its contingency bin collections and that he was keen to bring recycling and green waste collections back "on stream".

Leader of the council's Conservative opposition Robert Alden, said the refuse service needs to be "back up and running, the bins emptied and the streets cleaned".

He said there had been calls for months over putting "firm deadlines on offers" rather than allow "constant moving of the goal posts."

Cotton stressed however, that the authority stands ready "to engage constructively if Unite want to engage constructively. But, what is most important here is the people of the city and the need to deliver a waste service that works for everybody".

A transformed service would help boost the city's recycling rate of 22.9%, which is the lowest of any unitary authority in the country, with the exception of Liverpool, the council said.

If it does not meet the government's target rate of 65% by 2035, it could face a reduction in grant funding.