Coventry bin workers to be balloted over fresh strike action

A bitter dispute led to a six-month strike in 2022

Bin workers in Coventry are to be balloted on whether to take fresh industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions.

The Unite trade union said 55 members of the loading team were to take part in the ballot ending on 24 October.

More than 40 refuse lorry drivers, employed by the Labour-controlled authority, had already voted for strike action, Unite said.

Coventry City Council said it was "disappointed" by the move.

The employer was "attempting to impose significant cuts to the workers' terms and conditions", Unite said.

A bitter dispute between lorry drivers and the council led to a six-month strike in 2022.

The new disagreement concerned the practice of "task and finish", which currently allowed crews to leave work early if they had completed their round, said the council.

It said its position was that the situation must end.

It comes after members of another union, GMB, launched about 200 equal pay claims against the council as a result of the male-dominated refuse service benefitting from the arrangement while female members of staff, in other council departments, did not.

The council said it had been negotiating with members of three trade unions "for a number of months" on the matter, but had failed to get to a position on which they all agreed.

"This means we now need to explore other options as we have been really clear that it is absolutely non-negotiable that task and finish must end," said the authority in a statement.

"It is not an attack on crews who empty bins, no matter how the union tries to present it."

The council added: "It is important that we protect the council from any potential future equal pay claims."

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "If another strike goes ahead, residents will only have their councillors to blame.

"Coventry Council needs to learn from its mistakes and quickly negotiate and end this dispute."

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