Waste and recycling operatives in Kings Lynn and West Norfolk may strike over a pay and work dispute with Kier Refuse Services.

Forty-five members of the workers’ union GMB who are employed by Kier are organising a strike ballot after the company, which provides waste and recycling services for Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, failed to meet the union’s claim of a four per cent pay rise over 12 months.

Instead, the firm offered workers a rise of 1.75 per cent over 15 months.

GMB says that, as well as pay issues, there have been a number of ‘aggravating issues’ such as round imbalances, increased working hours and the level of agency staff being used since the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)) transfer from Veolia in April 2013.

In addition, the union says it asked Kier to negotiate an improvement to company sick pay, but has had no response to this.

As such, the union is organising a ballot (which closes on Wednesday, 27 August) asking members to support strike action to secure a better offer.

Pay offer is ‘insulting’

However, GMB has said that it ‘remains committed to talk further with the company to avoid regrettable disruption’.

Glenn Holdom, GMB Regional Officer, said: “This insulting pay offer does not reflect the effort put in by the operatives to fulfil the conditions of the contract. Even then it is a 15-month deal because they want to change the anniversary date to 1 July.

“The company response is not acceptable to our members, and they view this as the straw that has broken the camel’s back…

“GMB remain committed to talk further with the company to avoid regrettable disruption to the service our members provide, but the company need to improve the offer and address the other concerns of members.”

GMB/Kier blacklisting dispute

As well as this issue, GMB is in a separate dispute with Kier Group (and seven other construction companies) across the UK over its ‘failure to compensate workers they blacklisted’.

Blacklisting came to light when in 2009 the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) seized a Consulting Association database of 3,213 construction workers and environmental activists used by 44 companies to vet new recruits and keep out employment trade union and health and safety activists, who were viewed as being ‘troublesome’.

Documents in the High Court show that Kier Group provided the Consulting Association with information on 229 workers, of which seven were from Norfolk.

As such, Kier (and Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI PLC) have admitted culpability and are offering compensation of between £4,000 and £100,000 to blacklisted workers.

However, GMB has said that the compensation offer was ‘grossly inadequate for firms with pre-tax profits of £1.04 billion’, and they should ‘own up, clean up and pay up, and until they do so they should get no more public-sector work’.

It intends to proceed with legal action in the hopes of workers ‘winning many times more from the courts’.

Find out more about the GMB pay disputewith Kier or the blacklisting case.