‘The council is a fraction
UNITE assistant general secretary Howard Beckett does not hold back. He says the ‘secret payments’ to GMB members at the heart of the row with Birmingham City Council were ‘pushed in the faces’ of his members.
He accuses the council of defamatory ‘lies’ and warns the authority is putting workers at risk.
Further, he claims council lawyers are a ‘fraction’ off a settlement which would end the dispute instantly, but won’t budge.
Unite is currently in the midst of three legal battles with the council over bin collections.
The crux of the dispute is that the council made payments worth a total of £68,465 to GMB members who did not strike during the 2017 dispute over proposals to axe the grade 3 leading hand roles.
The council says it failed to consult with GMB members and had to settle; Unite says GMB members were rewarded for not striking and its own members were effectively blacklisted.
Reporter Carl Jackson: How did Unite find out about the payments? Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett : “It drifted down in the depots. It started to happen that those who had received a payment started to make commentary down in the depots.
“I heard stories that since the payments and since the issues erupted there have been incidents down in the depots where certainly managers have promoted the fact that if you were in another union you got a payment where as if you were in Unite you didn’t get a payment.
“I have heard members tell tales about people who were pushing it in their faces that they had received the payment for not taking industrial action.”
The council has stated they wrongly excluded GMB from negotiations in 2017 due to ‘demands’ by Unite. Is this true?
“It is a complete and utter fabrication and it is disingenuous of the council to say it ; it’s worse than that, it’s lies.
“The simple reality of the 2017 dispute was that the council had to negotiate with Unite and we had a court case, but I wasn’t in control of the officers’ diaries as to what meetings they did or did not have with other unions, nor did I give them any ultimatum that they couldn’t have meetings with other unions. It was simply the harsh reality that whenever they were in a room with my representatives who were taking industrial action, you couldn’t have had representatives of a union not taking industrial action in the same room.”
Some have described this as an ‘inter-union’ dispute as well as a dispute with the council.
“I would prefer to describe it as a fractured workplace now rather than an inter-union dispute.
“This is clearly a dispute between us and the council but there is a reality that as a consequence of how the council has behaved and as a consequence of making this payment there is a fractured relationship in the workplace, one that can only be repaired by an end to the discriminatory practices of paying those who do not take industrial action and not paying those who have taken part in industrial action.”
Unite has refused offers from the council to ‘settle the litigation’ of between £2,000 and £3,000 per claimant. How much will it take?
“I think the range of what the council paid the GMB members was between £3,600 to £4,200, that range probably differed depending on the grade of those workers who received the payment.
“We are in a position where we are saying if the council made an offer up to £3,000 there is probably only £700 difference between us.
“You now have the ridiculous situ-
ation where a council, council officers, are making a decision to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on contractors putting people of Birmingham through extraordinary dis- ruption because they won’t allow the Unite members to receive the same amount as those who didn’t take industrial action.
“In very simple terms, it’s a lot more affordable for the council to settle this dispute on fair terms with us than it is to continue the dispute, yet they are continuing the dispute.”
In a second legal battle, Unite applied to the High Court last week for an injunction against the council. Why?
“At the end of the 2017 dispute it was agreed – in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – that all council vehicles that are used for the collection of domestic waste would go out with a grade 3 at the back of the bins.
“The WRCO (Waste
Collection Officer) role critical role.
“They have been sending vehicles out without the WRCO attached to them, their own vehicles not contractor vehicles, but they claim that they are allowed to do that because it is a mopping-up crew that is undertaking the work. Now that’s a nonsense.”
The court did not grant an interim injunction but called for a full hearing later this year. What happens next?
“That is likely to be in May. On Friday we had to issue a notice of ballot in respect of breaches of the MoU which we will be balloting in two weeks’ time.
“Obviously
if
we Reduction is a safety
can’t
resolve things in the interim, if we don’t receive the council’s assurances that they will uphold the 2017 agreement, then we will find ourselves in a further dispute.
“The action will continue and it certainly wouldn’t be any less than the two days a week (of strike action) that is currently happening. In all likelihood it would probably escalate.”
In the third legal battle, the council is due to apply for its own interim injunction to stop the strike. It says even if it is successful Unite has declared its members would ignore a court order to get back to work.
“That’s a lie. We have instructed our solicitors to issue defamation letters because it’s an outrageous lie.
“It’s designed to have a negative impact on the reputation of Unite within the city, so that’s just a lie. If the council take injunctive proceedings I expect them to lose. It’s lawful industrial action.
“It would be an absolute disgrace for a Labour council to use Tory legislation that the Labour party nationally have committed to repealing when they are in government.”
Unite claims its members are being denied holiday. What has been said to them?
“You are not getting it. The message that has been very clearly sent down from the head office of the council is that those Unite members who are taking industrial action ‘don’t give them any holidays’.