Birmingham City Council urged to put bin strike pay pledge in writing

The Unite union has said if Birmingham City Council puts in writing “what it is saying in public” a deal in the bin dispute “would be much closer”.

In a statement, it claimed the authority’s leader John Cotton said that Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) workers moving “sideways” would not lose pay, but this had not been guaranteed long term by the council.

Cotton told BBC Midlands Today he was “a little mystified” by the union’s remarks and said there was an offer on the table that meant nobody needed to “lose out”.

More talks were expected on Wednesday, following union members’ rejection of the council’s latest pay offer on Monday.

Hundreds began an all-out strike on 11 March, in a standoff with the Labour-run council that has led to bin bags and fly-tipped rubbish piling up on streets.

The dispute was initially focused on the council’s plans to remove the WRCO role, a safety position it said did not exist at other authorities.

However, Unite has more recently urged the council to guarantee bin lorry drivers’ existing levels of pay, particularly with many WRCOs encouraged to take up driving training as a way of protecting their income.

In Wednesday’s statement, the union said: “Speaking to the BBC this morning ahead of fresh negotiations, council leader John Cotton said, ‘we’re in a position where nobody needs to be losing income’.

“If this is true and guarantees were put in writing as part of a new offer, a deal would be much closer.”

Unite said drivers on strike had been told during talks their pay was likely to go down from £40,000 to £32,000.

It stated: “For WRCO workers who do not wish to make a sideways move, the council are saying in public that they will get a one-off payment of £16,000 which would cover two years’ loss of £8,000 in pay cuts.

“Again, if this is true this needs to be put in writing.”

General secretary Sharon Graham said she stood ready to meet Cotton and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner over Easter.

But she said the council leader should “rethink his position” if his comments “prove again to be untrue”.

“We appear to be in a parallel universe. Yet again John Cotton is saying one thing in public, while his local officers are saying another in the negotiating room and in writing,” she said.

On Tuesday, the council said the amount of uncollected waste had peaked at 22,000 tonnes, and it was on track to clear the backlog by the weekend.

Cotton said he was “a little mystified” by Unite’s comments but he was keen to see the two parties continue talking so they could bring the dispute “to a close”.

Asked if he had told the union that no-one needed to lose any pay, he said: “We’ve been very clear throughout that there’s a reasonable offer on the table that means nobody needs to lose out and that there are alternative roles available.”

He said the WRCO role was “not sustainable” and that the council needed to find a way to remodel its waste service.

“The waste service hasn’t been good enough in this city and needs to improve, which is why we embarked on the transformation process,” he added.

Cotton said any agreement could not cross the council’s “red lines” and create any further equal pay issues.

However, he refused to give any guarantees over driver pay and said the role was the subject of a job evaluation process that was being undertaken across the council.

Cotton said he would not comment on a process that “had not been concluded”.

On the threat of compulsory redundancies, which was made by the authority on 27 March in relation to 72 refuse staff, Cotton confirmed the consultation process began on 3 April.