Coventry bin strike: Pay drivers the same as agency staff, says MP

Crowds gathered outside Coventry City Council on Tuesday

A council should pay striking bin lorry drivers the same amount it is paying agency workers to collect rubbish and end industrial action, an MP says.

About 75 drivers, who are members of Unite, have been staging walk-outs in Coventry over pay and a private waste firm is helping collect bins.

Labour's Barry Gardiner was at a rally outside the city council on Tuesday.

The council said local government law meant councillors are not allowed to attend negotiations with unions.

The strikes, which started in January, looks set to last into April as the workers call for improved wages.

Strike action and disruption looks likely to go on into April

Temporary waste sites have been set up in the city while the private waste firm, owned by the local authority, steps in.

But Mr Gardiner, MP for Brent North, said the striking drivers should be paid what the private workers are receiving and the authority should negotiate.

"They're already paying agency workers between £18 and £20 to come in and do that driving job. If they can be paying them that money, why can't they pay it to the people who have been serving the city for years," he said.

He added: "I want my Labour colleagues on the council say 'yeah, we respect our workforce, we respect their rights, we respect the fact that there's always a rate for the job' and that's why they need to look at what ACAS [the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service] has done in terms of the evaluation and they then need to sit round the table and get this resolved."

The Labour-run authority has said the cost of the strike had so far cost £1.8m due to a drop in income from commercial waste collections, the cost of hiring private drivers and creating the temporary collection sites.

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