WARRINGTON Borough Council has revealed details of how they brought the bin strikes to an end with no lump sum paid to refuse workers to return to work.
Leader of the council Hans Mundry, who sat down with officers and union officials following his appointment last week, says negotiations primarily focused on improved terms and conditions for refuse workers, including coversion of agency to permanent posts, including 17 new staff to enhance the council waste teams.
He says the resolution has been achieved with no additional costs for the council and improved terms and conditions for staff following the agreed national pay awards.
Following the strike action that began in October, Warrington Borough Council (WBC) finally resolved its industrial dispute with Unite the Union last week.
The dispute, stemming from the national pay award, saw refuse workers at local authorities across the country, including Warrington, engaging in strike action, something that the council has no powers to negotiate on.
Once the national pay talks had concluded, Cllr Mundry, the newly elected leader of the council, sat down with officers and union officials to negotiate an end to the strike action.
The negotiations primarily focused on improvements to terms and conditions for the refuse workers, including a job evaluation scheme, the conversion of agency posts to permanent, including 17 new staff positions to enhance council waste teams, Christmas 2024 working arrangements and the consideration of a laundry allowance.
Workers were on strike for a total of 35 days starting in October. As part of the agreement WBC refuse employees were not paid a lump sum to return to work, instead, there were fewer striking days deducted from their overall pay.
The remaining salary cost savings accrued during the strike action will now go towards cleanup operations including skips, highways management costs, temporary waste facilities and the additional staff offered permanent employment.
Temporary waste collection sites remain open on Alder Lane in Orford and at Victoria Park, further information regarding green bin collections will be released in the coming weeks.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Mundry said: “I’m happy to announce that we have been able to find a resolution and bring the strike action to an end.
“Our town has had tough few weeks. It’s been difficult for us all, and I sympathise with all our residents and businesses who have struggled whilst their bins have not been emptied.
“I want to put on record my thanks to everyone in the community who came together to help their neighbours and friends.
“I’m pleased we have been able to find a solution that will see our staff return to work and our bin collections resume.
“As a local authority and an employer, we are always looking to improve terms and conditions for our staff, however, we must also manage stretched budgets after 13 years of Conservative austerity that has cut our local services to the bone.
“This resolution does both, there are no additional costs for the Council and we have improved the terms and conditions of our refuse workers.
“We are now looking forward, returning services to normal as soon as possible.”
Council and Unite reach agreement to end bin strike with immediate effect
4 Comments
So why wasn’t this achieved 8 weeks ago ?
Broomhead Bowden and Mitchell too busy sorting their own problems out
where did your FEW WEEKS come from? more like 11 WEEKS SINCE we had our bins emptied!!!!!!!!
“As part of the agreement WBC refuse employees were not paid a lump sum to return to work, instead, there were fewer striking days deducted from their overall pay.”
So they didn’t get a lump sum, the councils going to pay them for days they were actually on strike! The sooner we get rid of this clowncil the better!
Yes yes, blame the conservatives as always. It wasn’t the conservatives who keep losing tens of millions on failed investments and have plunged the town into £1.8 billion of debt.
Same old same old