In Leeds, the city council was due to meet with unions UNISON and GMB yesterday in the latest round of talks to end the ongoing industrial action, which saw the council's in-house collection service walk out on September 7 following a dispute over plans to review the council's payment structure.
However, the unions expressed frustration over a decision by the city council to suspend talks until early next week in order to allow it to take further legal counsel about its position in relation to the strike.
GMB regional organiser Desiree Risebury said the council decision was “very frustrating” considering progress the unions felt they had made in previous discussions.
Tony Pearson, regional organiser for UNISON, added: “We are bitterly disappointed that the council did not have the legal advice they say they need in time for the talks. It means there is yet another delay to negotiating a fair and just settlement to this strike but they are adamant they have to seek top-level legal advice before they can respond to the union's proposal.”
A Leeds city council spokesperson said that it did not want to “rush this work” and claimed more time was needed to explore the proposals for affordability and risk.
He added: “The trade unions have suggested some fundamental changes to the pay and grading structure. Clearly these changes can't be considered lightly; it is complex and requires legal and financial advice.
The council said it had committed to meeting the unions again on Monday (November 16).
Temporary
The delay to the talks comes after the city council took on temporary workers at the end of last week (November 6) to try to help alleviate the build up of waste in the Yorkshire city, which has seen household waste and recycling collections as well as household waste and recycling centres affected by the strike.
The council advertised for workers on its website and claimed that the “overwhelming” response meant it had enough people to begin emptying a small number of residents' green recyclable bins.
The bins will be sampled to evaluate how much they are being contaminated with residual waste before a monthly cycle of green bin collections is initiated from next week (November 16).
Brighton
Meanwhile in Brighton, refuse workers from the city council's in-house collection service CityClean voted to suspend its strike on the second day of full industrial action.
The workers had performed minimum job requirements last week and started a full walk out on Monday (November 9) in a dispute over pay, which union representatives claimed could have adversely affected refuse collectors' pay.
However, workers agreed to suspend the action on Tuesday (November 10) for three weeks in order to allow the sides to move closer to resolving the dispute and GMB – which is representing the CityClean workers – said it was “extremely close to an agreement”.
Council leader Mary Mears said: “We're delighted the GMB union has decided to suspend the strike so that normal refuse and recycling collections can resume. We will now resume talks about the details of our proposal.
“Although the strike has lasted only two days, it will take a short while for the council to catch up on any missed collections and we'd ask for residents' patience during this brief period.”
The council said it intended to have cleared all collections disrupted by the two day strike by November 20.
Commenting on the decision to suspend the strike, Mark Turner, GMB branch secretary said: “After only two days of all out industrial action the streets of Brighton were piled high with rubbish and the council found itself under increasing pressure from residents to resolve the dispute.”
Sheffield
And, in Sheffield, GMB representatives of workers employed by the council's waste collection contractor Veolia Environmental Services (ES) Sheffield met with the company through conciliator ACAS in a bid to avert potential strike action.
Workers had threatened industrial action in response to some refuse workers receiving different levels of pay despite performing the same tasks. However, GMB has taken a payment offer made by Veolia back to its members with the suggestion to accept the deal.
A spokeswoman for Veolia ES Sheffield told letsrecycle.com: “They met last week and it was a productive meeting and the GMB is now going to go back to their members and suggest that they take it but I have yet to hear anything more from them on it.”
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