Birmingham bin workers agree deal with council
Bin workers in Birmingham have backed a deal to end a dispute over jobs and conditions – averting further strike action.
Members of Unite at Birmingham City Council voted at a mass meeting to accept an agreement hammered out at the conciliation service Acas.
Unite said refuse workers are set to move to new roles in February under the deal which has been endorsed by the council's cabinet.
The union's assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: "This deal secures the grade three role and protects the pay of workers who faced losing thousands of pounds.
"It is a victory for common sense and a victory for the people of Birmingham who no longer need worry about the disruption of industrial action.
"This deal, which protects the livelihoods of hard-working refuse workers, would not have been possible without the determination and solidarity of Unite members.
"Rather than rolling over, they stood firm through thick and thin to defend their jobs and the service they provide to the city of Birmingham.
"The stand that Birmingham's refuse workers took and the victory they have secured should be an inspiration to others right across the trade union movement."
A pay row kicked off in June when Unite claimed the city council's bid to 'modernise' the service and save £5 million a year threatened more than 100 jobs.
Binmen voted for strike action and this left tons of rubbish piled up on the streets over three months including parts of Great Barr.
Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward said: “I made it clear that my top priority on becoming leader was to resolve this dispute – the disruption caused for the citizens of Birmingham has been completely unacceptable, and everyone recognises that.
“This has always been about providing an efficient and effective refuse collection service for Birmingham, as that is what citizens rightly expect and deserve from us.
"Neither the council or Unite wanted things to escalate in the way they did, so I am pleased that through quiet, open and honest dialogue we have been able to reach a legally-sound position, going through the correct governance processes that we must always follow.
“The new waste reduction and collection officer roles we have jointly developed within our collection teams will focus on delivering a key element of the city’s waste strategy, the improvement of our recycling rate and raising awareness amongst citizens about how they can play their part in reducing the amount of waste we generate in the first place."
Unite said as part of the deal, a High Court hearing planned for Monday will not go ahead and the council has agreed to pay the union's legal costs.
Workers staged three months of strikes which ended in September.
