The council call for extra staff comes as it bids to reduce the backlog by putting its own crews out on the road with seven already operational.
In a statement yesterday (15 January) the authority said it had collected almost 40 tonnes of recycling in less than three days, including two tonnes of food waste on Wednesday alone. The statement added: “The council will endeavour to ensure that everybody will have their recycling collected within two weeks – the majority of which we anticipate collecting within one week.”
Backlog
The backlog of material from missed recycling and food waste collections has built up outside homes in the area due to ongoing industrial action at Kier. With the local authority looking to take on its own workers to clear the backlog, Kier has said that under strike law the company itself is “not allowed to implement any additional resource during the strike or to cover over time”.
The action by collection workers, which is backed by trade union Unite, started at the end of December, (see letsrecycle.com story) and sees the workers operating an overtime ban, as well as weekly 48-hour strikes – this week taking place today and yesterday – (strike picture courtesy of the The Bath Chronicle).
As a consequence of the uncollected recycling, BANES is now finding that some residents are putting recyclables into their residual waste bins instead.
BANES, on its website, says that the council “would love to hear” from people interested “in working for the Council’s waste Collection Team on a temporary or casual contract”. Salaries offered are equivalent to £15,207-£15,941 pro rata for a 37 hour week for a loader and £19,742-£21,530 pro rata for a driver.
Unite
Jerry Pickford, Unite regional officer, has been working on the campaign and said last week that the group of Kier employees involved has not been able settle with Kier on an agreeable salary rise.
He added: “The offers in September were far too low for us to consider. We would like to see the dispute end but we are not desperate.”
Kier
On the topic of pay, a Kier statement has said: “Late on Wednesday, 7 January 2016 Unite confirmed it had rejected the most recent Kier pay offer of 3%, backdated to July 2015, 4% in July 2016 and 5% in July 2017 which represents a 12% increase over the next 18 months.
“Unite are refusing to accept anything other than a 20% increase. Kier are very disappointed that they have taken this view, despite previous pay deals since 2013 awarding an overall average 6%. Our most recent offer would actually provide a total 24% to recycling operatives pay.
“So we now face, under strike laws, the restriction that we have to operate the service on the remaining crews. This existing crew are working incredibly hard to mitigate the impact of the strike.”
And, this week Kier revealed that discussions had already taken place with ACAS earlier in January.
Temporary staff
On its website yesterday (14 January), BANES said: “As the situation currently stands, broadly a third of residents are having their recycling collected on time. However, due to the ongoing go-slow and overtime ban by Kier employees, only around 50% of the scheduled collections take place each day. This, along with the impact of further strike days – when less than a third of Kier staff will be working – means that the potential for backlog is increasing.”
Councillor
Councillor Martin Veal, cabinet member for community services, said: “We are doing our utmost but it will take time to resolve this difficult situation, which is not of our making. We appreciate that residents are being inconvenienced, so we thank you for your patience and for continuing to recycle.
“We have noticed an increase in the volume of black bin bag waste being put out for collection and we urge residents not to place recyclable material in with your normal rubbish please.”
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