City Council accused of misleading Bristol Waste workers over jobs

Bristol City Council is being accused of breaking promises to workers it transferred to Bristol Waste

City council leaders have been accused of misleading staff about job security after transferring them to its waste company.

Bristol City Council had told workers moving to Bristol Waste there would be no redundancies during the four-year contract.

But the company is now reviewing roles, working patterns and conditions for the cleaners and security staff.

The trade union GMB said the council had "washed its hands" of the workers.

The mayor's office and the local authority have so far refused to comment.

In an email seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, GMB union Avon and Wessex branch secretary Jeff Sutton has urged Labour mayor Marvin Rees and council bosses to "man up and admit a mistake was made and bring these services back to Bristol City Council".

The city council cabinet had approved the move two years ago, with deputy mayor Craig Cheney promising "no future redundancies and complete protection of contracted terms and conditions" throughout the initial contract, while Mr Rees said the agreement provided a "real hard-and-fast safety net".

But two months ago, Bristol Waste confirmed it was reviewing working patterns and that some cleaning and security staff could see their shifts changed.

In a statement to a recent meeting of the council's Human Resources committee Mr Sutton said: "The focus is to reduce hours, shift allowances and make some, possibly up to 20, staff redundant.

'Employees and unions misled'

"Those staff remaining in cleaning services will have their workload increased by around 50%, some displaced staff may have to take on new duties to replace the hours they lose, which could result in extended work days."

Mr Sutton said employees and unions had been "misled" two years ago by bosses at City Hall and Bristol Waste who "time after time promised them that there would be no redundancies and no changes to their terms and conditions".

"The GMB is asking that the whole process be reviewed and investigated."

Councillor Richard Eddy raised the issue at the overview and scrutiny management board (OSMB) where he backed the "grave concerns" of the GMB, Unison and Unite unions over the broken commitments.

He said at the HR committee: "I have been a longstanding critic of the cabinet's move.

"The difficulty we have is that these 200 staff who were given false promises are no longer council employees, so it is not in our remit to discuss it here."

He said OSMB had agreed to consider examining it over the coming months because one of its responsibilities was to scrutinise Bristol Waste's business plan.