Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) is calling on members of the public to join its collection crews on a temporary basis as it seeks to resolve a waste backlog caused by strike action among its staff.

Disruptions to the council’s waste collections started on 2 January, after industrial action by a number of employees at the Keynsham depot of Kier over an ongoing pay dispute.

Backed by trade union Unite, 45 workers from the waste management company have been operating an overtime ban, and have taken part in strikes yesterday and today (14 and 15 January). Two day strikes are planned for every Thursday and Friday until 12 February.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the council said that it currently has ‘seven crews out in an effort to reduce the backlog’ and that it had ‘collected almost 40 tonnes of recycling in less than three days, including two tonnes of food waste on Wednesday alone’.

However, the council estimates that only a third of residents are having their recycling collected on time, with only half of scheduled collections taking place each day because of the industrial action. This means, it says, that the backlog is increasing.

Working to clear backlog

The statement released by BANES read: ‘The council will endeavour to ensure that everybody will have their recycling collected within two weeks – the majority of which we anticipate collecting within one week. However, it is hard to predict the exact impact on collections that sustained strikes will have.

‘The council has diverted as many existing staff as available onto the recycling effort, but cannot physically reduce the backlog of waste any faster. We are striving to extend collections to cover the weekend.

‘However, due to restrictions on how many hours existing staff can work, the council is keen to hear from members of the public who would like to express an interest in joining the council’s collection crews on a temporary paid basis – especially HGV drivers with a clean Category C licence and a current Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC).’

Salaries being offered are equivalent to £15,207-£15,941 pro rata for a 37-hour week for a loader and £19,742-£21,530 pro rata for a driver.

Pay dispute

Discussions had been ongoing between Kier and Unite at the beginning of the disruption, but a statement on Kier’s website reads: ‘Late on Wednesday, 7 January 2016 Unite confirmed it had rejected the most recent Kier pay offer of three per cent, backdated to July 2015, four per cent in July 2016 and five per cent in July 2017 which represents a 12 per cent increase over the next 18 months.

‘Unite are refusing to accept anything other than a 20 per cent increase. Kier are very disappointed that they have taken this view, despite previous pay deals since 2013 awarding an overall average six per cent. Our most recent offer would actually provide a total 24 per cent to recycling operatives pay.

‘In addition to starting a 24 hour strike on Thursday, 14 January, Unite members have also been using wider industrial action since the 30 December, including an overtime ban, despite talks being ongoing. So we now face, under strike laws, the restriction that we have to operate the service on the remaining crews. We are not allowed to implement any additional resource during the strike or to cover overtime.’

Disparity with Bristol

Unite said that the latest three-year pay deal was rejected by members as it does not go far enough to address the £2 an hour difference in pay between themselves and workers doing the same job at a nearby Bristol City Council site.

Regional Officer Jerry Pickford said: “Kier Ltd is fiercely fighting a rear-guard action to defend this glaring pay inequality. It now needs to drop its bully boy tactics and start negotiating seriously to resolve this dispute.

“Loaders at the Keynsham depot are paid just £7.81 an hour… Our members are angry that they earn £2 less an hour for delivering exactly the same service with a two-person crew, while workers in nearby Bristol earn more but operate a three-person crew. If you do the same job you should get the same pay.

“After the appalling way our members have been treated, they have no faith that the company will honour even its latest inadequate pay offer. Kier is promising a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with no guarantee that it will stick around to honour the pay offer over the next two pay reviews.”

Kier is posting daily update of the situation on its website.