Recycling revamp can help protect binmen pay – union
THE union chief negotiating for Birmingham’s binmen says they have a professionally costed plan to raise more money for the council through recycling.
Unite Assistant General Secretary Howard Beckett says that there is untapped potential to raise funds and offset the need for the service to make cuts to his members’ pay.
Interviewed on the facebook page of our sister paper the Birmingham Mail, the negotiator also said he believed a deal could be done to protect the 113 binmen at risk of redundancy.
He said: “Recycling of waste is a substantial potential revenue opportunity for the council.”
He suggested a review of the council’s recycling operation could lead to an improvement in performance and “with that improved performance comes the opportunity to increase recycling income. I am willing to sit down with the council and put that in a formal proposal which is professionally costed.”
He said that contrary to many reports the union is prepared to work on compromises over the change from four to five day working, the use of overtime and measures to improve performance.
But he said that the crunch issue for Unite is preventing the loss of between £3,500 to £5,000 in salary for the 113 grade three leading hand level staff - which is about 15 per cent of their average £21,000 salary.
“It’s a mucky, difficult job cleaning our streets and our staff, some of the lowest paid in the council, are being asked to pay for the austerity being imposed by Government. If they lose that money they can’t pay their mortgages,
If they lose that money they can’t pay their mortgages, can’t pay their rent or put food on the table Howard Beckett
can’t pay their rent or put food on the table for their children.”
He said those workers carry out a crucial safety role at the back of huge bin wagon, which the council proposes replacing with CCTV monitored by the driver.
“We say that’s simply not sustainable. In the recent past we’ve had two incidents in the backs of wagons where our members have suffered serious injury.
“It’s fortunate we haven’t been looking at fatalities.
“You only have to be a parent on the way to school and hear the beep-beepbeep of a bin wagon to know how important safety is at the back of a wagon.”
Mr Beckett was brought in by the union last week to break the deadlock in negotiations in the strike which has been ongoing since June 30.
He rejected claims from the city council leadership that union members had been engaged in disruption outside their legal industrial action. He said their alternative job offers were mainly temporary roles with fixed term contracts, which is why they had been widely shunned by binmen. The council leadership has been invited to take part in a similar interview.