Plans to introduce food waste collections across Cardiff from October 13 have come under fire from the city's recycling collectors because of a proposed change in shifts to incorporate the service and save residents money. The operatives are threatening to strike if a deal cannot be hammered out in the next two weeks.

To fit in the new waste collection service, the council is proposing that working hours are changed. Currently the operatives work from 7.00am to 3.00pm but Cardiff council wants to move to a two shift system where people work from 6.00am to 2.00pm and 2.00pm to 10.00pm. The council believes this will take advantage of its fleet of refuse vehicles better and save taxpayers £1 million.

Leader of the council, councillor Rodney Berman, said: "This key service improvement can only be cost-effectively introduced by moving to a two shift system, to ensure we utilise the use of our collection vehicles. Any alternative to the two shift system would lead to twice as many vehicles needed which would be a significant additional cost to the tax payer."

He added that the council would "be sensitive to the needs of individual staff".

Angry

However, operatives working for the council are angry at the proposals. Michael Payne, regional representative for the GMB union explained that workers were threatening to strike because the council was insisting that some move from a morning shift to a late shift without organising the shift changes fairly. He said: "The council has arbitrarily picked people to work afternoons."

The two factions have been negotiating about the shift patterns over the past two months. A spokesman for Cardiff council said it was prepared to offer workers who agree to work the late shift "a one-off payment". However, if operatives do accept this their breaks will be reduced from two to one.

The spokesman for the council explained: "We are committed to rolling out the food waste programme and we will continue to talk to unions to negotiate the way forward. We can confirm that an offer of a one-off payment has been made and we will be holding further meetings with the unions to continue discussions."

Mr Payne told workers of the offer at a meeting on Thursday (September 19) that he was not optimistic that it would solve the problem. He said the operatives "got quite wound-up and some were very angry" about the council's offer.

He added that many operatives received a letter on Friday stating that if they did not make a decision about which shift to work in the next 14 days then the one-off cash offer would be withdrawn and the council would terminate contracts so they could be replaced with contracts detailing the two shift system.

Mr Payne said the council was "not prepared to consider people" or listen to any alternatives to the two shift system that had been put forward by the GMB. He claimed the council had dismissed GMB suggestions of rotational shifts and four day shifts of 9 hours spread over six days as "too costly".

Talks

Negotiations, to agree on an incentive package for workers who change to afternoon collection, are continuing and the operatives will begin voting on strike action later this week if no agreement is reached. Results would be due in on October 6 for a proposed strike action starting on October 13.

The spokesman for Cardiff council commented: "Cardiff council is continuing consultation with the trade unions and trying to find a way forward but the message is clear, the food waste composting scheme will be launched to households on October 10 and collections will start on October 13 as planned."

Industry

Worryingly for the industry as a whole, Mr Payne predicted that problems like this will re-occur in the future. He believes that, as recycling collections change, more people will be required to work "shift patterns that staff will find incompatible". He said a strategy needs to be developed to ensure that, as recycling collections change and grow, workers will not be forced to suffer "drastic changes to their working practises".

The council said the new collection and shift pattern will create 34 more jobs and ensure that it is utilising its services and equipment.