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Merseyside HWRC strike off as Veolia’s pay offer accepted

Strike action was halted while members voted on the offer last month, with next week's action at 22 HWRCs now cancelled

Veolia workers who were set to strike across Merseyside’s household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) network have called off the industrial action after agreeing to improved pay offer.

The agreement has been confirmed both by a spokesperson for Veolia and the union Unite.

A Veolia spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “We can confirm that Unite members have accepted Veolia’s pay and conditions offer that recognises the hard work of our teams who deliver essential public services for the community.

“We are pleased that agreement has been reached and look forward to continuing to provide recycling and waste services across Merseyside and Halton.”

This comes after another strike by Biffa workers employed on an outsourced Wirral metropolitan borough council contract was also cancelled last week (3 January) after an agreement on a 15% pay rise (see letsrecycle.com story).

Background

The strike action involving 180 workers was announced last month and was due to run from 28-31 December, and 2-7 January. Further action was planned from 15 January.

However, the HWRC strikes were suspended while workers were balloted on a revised pay offer, which resulted in an agreement this week and subsequent cancellation of any future dates.

While the details of the pay offer have not yet been specified, Unite originally said it was seeking “an increase of 50p per hour for the majority of the staff, increasing pay to £10 an hour, with class two HGV drivers being paid £12 an hour and class one drivers receiving £14.47 an hour.” Unite also said it wants the “differentials to be maintained when the national minimum wage increases in April 2023” (see letsrecycle.com story).

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