Blaby bins: Three weeks of strikes look set to go ahead

The GMB wants a 15% pay rise for staff on top of a national offer

Three weeks of bin strikes are still set to go ahead in an area of Leicestershire after a council's attempt to address strikers' concerns was rejected.

Blaby District Council leader Terry Richardson told councillors that the authority had "tried desperately" to find a solution to action.

But the GMB union said refuse workers still intend to go through with the planned strikes throughout August.

The walkout is due to begin on Tuesday.

GMB has called for a 15% pay rise for its members locally, on top of the national £1,925 offer, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

However, councillor Richardson said the matter was more complicated than it might appear, because the council was not legally allowed to work out a local pay deal.

'More transparent'

Both the authority and the union are signed up to the national negotiation process and must work within that, he said.

Councillor Richardson told a meeting on Tuesday: "We have a situation here where we have a union which is taking industrial action, looking for a local pay claim which we cannot meet and talk to them about because we will be breaking the contract of employment with all our staff.

"We cannot make them a local offer because we are not legally allowed to. We can't pay a national offer straight away because it's not been approved."

He said the council put forward a number of proposals for improving working life for its refuse teams, including a review of its job evaluation process so it was more transparent.

The 15% pay demand would cost the district council just under £2.2 million a year, according to the LDRS.

'Overflowing bins'

Dave Warwick, GMB organiser, confirmed the strikes would be proceeding. He added: "[We have] been trying resolve the unfair job evaluation issue with Blaby council since March.

"Yet the council has still not re-evaluated the jobs of our refuse collectors and followed the process in a clear and transparent way.

"We are very concerned for the people of Blaby who will unfortunately be living with overflowing bins until the council sees sense and resolves this dispute."

The latest industrial action will follow an previous strike which saw refuse workers walked out for three consecutive Wednesdays.

The walkout is due to take place between between 01:00 BST on 1 August and 23:30 on 18 August.