The strike has affected recycling and rubbish collections from households across the city and also seen the closure of three household waste and recycling centres. And, local media reports have claimed that waste has been “piled high” and has been “overflowing” onto pavements and roads.
In a bid to curb the backlog of collections, the council brought in some private contractors and issued guidance to households for disposing of material by asking them to make use of the household waste and recycling centres unaffected by the strike or by storing bins in their gardens.
After meeting for “over four hours” yesterday, the three parties agreed to meet again today (October 6) but remained tight-lipped about the outcome of the initial sit-down.
A joint statement released after the meeting by the council, GMB and Unite said: “Two trades unions and Leeds city council have agreed to meet again for further talks to try and resolve industrial action, which is currently affecting refuse collection and street cleaning services across Leeds.”
The council said that there would be no further comment while talks were on-going.
Ahead of the talks, the council said it hoped that the negotiations would help find a “fresh way” of resolving the on-going industrial action which has thus far affected household refuse and recycling collections and three household waste and recycling centres in the Yorkshire city.
The discussions come after both sides previously accused the other of refusing to return to the negotiating table in the wake of talks breaking down between the two parties.
Tensions have run high in the industrial action and, in the second week of the walk-out, six people were arrested for dumping waste at the home of council leader Richard Brett in a sign of solidarity with striking workers. And, in a separate incident, a threatening voicemail was left at the councillor's home address (see letsrecycle.com story).
Pay
Refuse workers voted for a continuous industrial action at the end of August following a dispute with the council about plans to restructure pay levels for council staff, which unions claimed would have “adversely affected” 440 members of the refuse collection, street-cleansing and waste management divisions.
The unions claimed that the proposed change to pay levels could lead to refuse workers' pay being slashed from £18,000 to £13,000. However, the council has challenged this figure and claimed that the unions' assumptions were “highly misleading”.
A council statement said: “While – regrettably – some workers are theoretically worse off at the end of this process, the greatest loss in pay is actually £4,491 and the average is less than £3,000. However, salaries won't change until January 2011 because of pay protection.”
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