ABC Council bin strike to be suspended after six weeks

Rubbish piled up outside a Lurgan recycling centre

A six-week strike at Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (ABC) Borough Council is to be suspended.

The action began on 15 August and has led to 500,000 missed bin collections.

A pay deal for council staff, brokered by the Labour Relations Agency, was approved at a special meeting of the council on Tuesday.

The decision to return to work came after unions and council managers met on Wednesday morning. The action will be suspended from 00:01 on Thursday.

In a statement on Wednesday, ABC Council said street cleaning teams would "work across the borough to clear litter [and] servicing public toilets will recommence alongside indoor and outdoor leisure services".

Arrangements for return of ABC Council waste services

Bin collections are to resume on Thursday and general waste has been prioritised for collection.

That means that only black and brown bins will be collected until further notice.

The collection of green bins - those used for dry recyclable waste - is still suspended.

Four household recycling centres - They are Armagh, Banbridge, Fairgreen in Portadown and Newline in Lurgan - will reopen from 12:00 BST on Thursday.

The remaining centres will reopen at 12:00 on Friday.

More than 1,000 local government workers from the GMB, Unite and the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (Nipsa) unions were involved in industrial action.

Brenda Stevenson from Unite said: "We're happy with the deal - we think it's a good deal for our members and we think we can get it sold to them.

"We'll go out to ballot our members early next week but we are recommending that they accept the deal."

Union representatives have responded favourably to the pay deal

Alan Perry of GMB said: "Hopefully the bins and the rubbish will start to get lifted tomorrow.

"If accepted this will go some way to helping the lowest-paid council workers face the cost-of-living crisis and a hard winter ahead."

Nipsa's Kevin Kelly said union officials were "delighted to get [the deal] over the line".

"This has been a hard-fought-for battle and a battle that tested our members to the limits," he said.

Nipsa will begin balloting their members next week.

'Double-digit rates'

ABC Council had previously said its objective was to "focus on the lowest paid in the organisation, whilst minimising the impact on the ratepayer".

However, the DUP group on the council said it was concerned about the affordability of the pay deal and said it could cause a "double-digit rates increase".

The party said: "Our group has repeatedly asked for the detail around how the proposal tabled on Tuesday evening can be funded.

"On behalf of every ratepayer in the borough we must see a costed and detailed plan of how the millions of pounds can be raised and provided for year on year without financially overburdening households, especially in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

"This detail was not forthcoming.

"When we asked for the estimated impact on the rates, officers advised that a double-digit rates increase was likely - this is deeply concerning for our party."

More than 500,000 bins have not been collected during the six weeks of strike action

Speaking after the council meeting, Sinn Féin councillor Liam Mackle said the majority of councillors had supported the deal.

"The past six weeks have been very difficult for everyone in the borough," he said.

"We now need to concentrate on recovery."

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He said he believed the agreement was "fair to our valued staff and ratepayers".

"It targets our lowest paid staff whilst also acknowledging and rewarding all our staff," he added.

Alliance Party councillor Peter Lavery said the settlement represented a "fair deal for staff and protects public services".

But he added: "It's important to say that this deal could, and should, have been reached weeks ago.

"It has been hugely frustrating that while solutions existed some political parties instead choose to needlessly prolong the industrial dispute."

'Fair wage'

SDLP councillor Ciaran Toman said his party was delighted that a settlement had been agreed.

"The deal agreed rewards all staff with a payment in facing the cost-of-living crisis and it targets the lowest paid staff with a fair wage," he added.

Meanwhile, strike action continues at Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council (LCCC) after a pay offer was rejected.

In a tweet on Tuesday night, LCCC said it anticipated "some ongoing disruption".

It is not clear how much disruption there has been to bin collections.

About 200 members of the Unite union working for Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council are currently on strike.

The action follows a dispute about pay and conditions.

Mr Perry of the GMU union told BBC News NI that an offer at LCCC had been rejected.

He said he was "hopeful of a further meeting to try and resolve the dispute there".