Lisburn and Castlereagh Council strike to continue during pay offer ballot

Bin collections have been sporadic since council workers began their strike over pay and conditions last month

Disruption to bin collections in the Lisburn and Castlereagh Council area looks set to continue as workers consider a revised pay offer.

Members of the Unite union have been on strike since early September.

The council said it was "disappointed" that the strike was not suspended pending the result of the ballot which will not be known until 28 October.

But Unite said the pay offer was "flawed," adding managers were aware of its concerns for the lowest paid staff.

The union said those workers would be "more deeply affected by the cost of living crisis".

Bin collections, leisure services and environmental health services are among the services affected by the industrial action.

The strike was relaxed during the period of mourning following the Queen's death but it resumed the day after her funeral.

The council said it submitted a pay offer to unions last Friday, which it said met requests from the union representatives, and was told members would vote on the offer.

Unite members on the picket line in Lisburn last month

"The outcome of the ballot will not be known until Friday 28 October," a council spokesperson said.

"The council had requested a suspension of industrial action until the ballot had concluded as has been the case in other councils.

"Council was disappointed to learn from Unite the Union that their members who are currently on strike would not agree to suspend the strike action during the ballot process.

"Whilst council is respectful of an individual's right to strike, we are now facing a continued period of significant disruption across essential services for at least a further four-week period."

However, Unite accused the council of "public posturing" which it claimed was "designed to try to turn public sentiment against those on industrial action".

It said its members were "the very same people who many stood and clapped for and said thank you to as key workers during the pandemic".

Unite added that it was "genuinely interested in seeking to resolve this dispute" and added that was "demonstrable by our actions that we are willing to ballot members on a formal offer, flaws and all, in order to get an objective answer rather than sit in a state of inertia".

The council said its revised offer was presented to the GMB and Nipsa trade unions, alongside Unite on Friday.

Alan Perry said GMB members could join Unite on the picket line

Other workers are still considering if they will take part in industrial action.

"The majority of our members work in waste, parks and also leisure," said Alan Perry from the GMB union.

"The would mean a complete shutdown, potentially, of leisure services across the borough, along with obviously the impact it's having at the moment around the waste collection

"That would be severely impacted when our members potentially come out and join the picket line."

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Last month a six-week strike at Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (ABC) Borough Council was suspended after a pay deal was agreed.

Unite said it was recommending its members accept the deal and would ballot them on it.

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