Council appeal to bins staff on threat to strike
why action would be announced now.
“A reasonable position would have been to review the situation at the end of the agreed period, and indeed we already had a meeting scheduled at the convenience of the Unison branch secretary between the council, the joint secretaries and the branch so that we could jointly review progress and agree next steps.
“An update on all 16 actions was provided to the branch secretary before Friday’s meeting to ensure that the Unison members who did attend had an up to date position so they could make an informed view.
“We believe that the action the branch has taken is not reasonable, fair or proportionate, and we are still unclear as to what remaining issues would warrant such extreme action and disruption to our residents and businesses.
“Regardless of this distraction, we will continue to work with the regional joint secretaries to deliver all our agreed actions and keep our side of the agreement, as we have done throughout.
“We would urge the branch to act reasonably, and reconsider, as the people who will suffer most with any strike action will be residents and businesses who quite properly expect the service to be delivered.”
Mr Battersby responded individually to the issues members were balloted on.
Inability to take leave: “No leave requests have been refused since the agreement was reached, and all those who wished to sell a portion of their accrued leave have done so and were paid on September 5.
“Up to 30 agency staff were made available to cover leave and enable staff to take their leave, in particular over the summer months. Individual conversations are being held with staff to ensure that any remaining backlog of leave is used by 2020.
“Three additional rounds have been put in place whilst a review of the rounds is being undertaken, and crews are now completing their rounds and finishing early.
Bullying and harassment: “The independent investigation has concluded, and a number of matters have been resolved, with further investigations ongoing with several individuals, as recommended by the report. We have received no further reports of any issues.”
Industrial action could start on Monday, October 1 and would mean the majority of the 200,000 bins in Kirklees not being emptied.
Strike action so far has only affected Huddersfield and South Kirklees but the disruption would also impact on North Kirklees.
Unison members who met at the Navigation Tavern in Mirfield on Friday said they’d had enough and the action would see most of Kirklees’ 200,000 bins not being emptied.