Binmen threaten strike action over pay and job cuts

Bin collection, recycling and other local public services workers are considering strike action in a dispute over pay and job cuts, Britain’s General Union (GMB) announced today.

The union said members employed by private environmental services contractor, Veolia, will be balloted for strike action if talks to avert the cuts are unsuccessful.

Veolia has issued an official HR1 form putting public service contract workers on 90 days notice of their intention to unilaterally make them redundant, dismiss them and re-engage them on lesser terms and conditions.

Rehana Azam, GMB national officer, said: ‘What Veolia is doing is completely unacceptable and will not be accepted by the many GMB members working on these contracts. Veolia management’s decision to make their employees bear the brunt of the squeeze on Government funding is just not on’.

‘Veolia should work closely with GMB, not alienate the workforce. The collapse of Connaught last week has made workers at Veolia understandably jumpy and these redundancy notices will do nothing for confidence or morale. If Veolia feels changes are needed, for whatever reason, they should be upfront about speaking to the workforce reps before this type of action,’ Azam added.

A spokesperson for Veolia, said: 'As required by law we have issued an HR1 form to some municipal employees in our regional PFI contracts as we would like to consolidate our workforce under one company name.  As such they would be employed by Veolia ES (UK) Limited – the main operating company for the Group in the UK – and not the regional contracts, which we already wholly own'.

'This is a statutory requirement for a change of employer name.  We have no intention of making municipal employees redundant, dismiss them or re-engage them on lesser terms and conditions,' Veolia added.

If a strike goes ahead millions of households across the UK could face disruption to bin collection and other public services. 

Veolia workers are employed on 196 contracts across the UK, including councils in 18 London Boroughs, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Devon and Cardiff.

To see a full list of the councils affected go to the GMB website.

The news comes just days after union representatives at the TUC's annual meeting voted in favour of joint industrial action, which could result in widespread strikes, if the government goes ahead with plans to slash public sector spending.