Some refuse workers will lose money
The leader of Birmingham City Council has admitted for the first time some refuse workers will lose money under plans to reform the service.Bin workers who are members of Unite the Union have been in a stand-off with the Labour-run council over proposed changes to roles and pay, since January. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, council leader John Cotton said he "absolutely understood" there would be "implications for individuals", but the authority had to "implement job evaluation fairly across the council". Unite claims 170 workers face an annual pay cut of £8,000, but the authority has said only 17 members of staff lose up to £6,000 - something Cotton had not acknowledged publicly.
Cotton stressed that the council continued to negotiate with Unite in order to find a "reasonable settlement" to "reflect the workforce's concerns".He denied claims from Unite that the deal to end the dispute had been "watered down" and said the authority had provided a "fair and reasonable offer", which was being discussed by arbitration body Acas. All-out strike action in the city began on 11 March and rubbish has continued to pile up on streets, but securing a legal injunction in May enabled more bin lorries to to be brought in to clear the mountains of bin bags."Regarding the city as a whole, since we secure the injunction and have been able to deploy our available fleet we have collected 33,498 tonnes and average 1,288 per day which includes weekends," a spokesperson for the city council said."We have cleared the backlog so are now able to continue to implement our contingency plan, providing residents with one collection each week."
'Avoid repeating mistakes'
The leader of the Labour-run authority described the situation as "incredibly frustrating" and said it continued to urge Unite to accept the offer it had placed on the table. "This strike needs to end so we can carry on with transforming the waste service and ensuring everyone gets the services they're entitled to," Cotton said.However the council leader added that he had "set some straight red lines" to avoid "repeating some of the mistakes that happened in the past"."We have had to take a look at the grading of the driver roles, that is part of the process we have signed up to together with the trade unions, it is a recognised methodology for evaluating jobs."He said a negotiated settlement was "in everyone's interest" and it would allow the council to "get back to the business of improving the waste service in the city".
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