Eastleigh collections hit in task and finish row

Residents in the Hampshire borough are now voicing concerns that residual waste may now not be collected for up to three weeks.

The dispute, which has intensified this week, has now led to householders being told their green waste, a paid-for weekly service, may not be collected until mid-December at the earliest.

The garden waste collections have been suspended as the councils bids to tackle a backlog of unemptied domestic waste bins following strike action by refuse operators.

Strikes have been carried out on three separate days – the first was earlier this month while the second and third took place on Monday and last Friday. Negotiations are ongoing and further action by refuse and recycling collection service crews, employed by the council, has not been ruled out.

The bone of contention is the “task and finish” system which had been in place in Eastleigh until the start of this month. This allowed crews to clock off when they finished their rounds despite having worked less than their contracted 37.5 hours – the idea behind the system is that it drives up efficiency levels of refuse crews.

In Eastleigh, the grey bin which holds the residual waste went unemptied from 10,000 households on each day of the strike, with collections from some homes being up to five working days over schedule before they were lifted.

The council operates a fortnightly collection service for residual waste and while it received many queries and some complaints, it said the colder weather kept smells from rotting uncollected organic waste to a minimum. Recyclables, which are collected on alternate weeks to residual waste will be collected on the next scheduled date.

Dispute

The dispute leading to the strikes in Eastleigh began when the council brought in new working arrangements for refuse collectors at the beginning of this month.

Previously, under the task and finish scheme, workers completed their rounds and if the council required them to carry out any other duties, the refuse collectors would be paid overtime, even if they were still within the bounds of their contracted 37.5 hours.

However, the council said it wants to end the over-time pay policy. A spokesman explained: “The payment of overtime is the crunch, the crews are charging overtime within the 37.5 hours. If crews finish at 11.30am, as a lot do, the council wants to ask that maybe they work some other jobs. It may be there is nothing else to do or it could be that they are asked to help another crew.”

He added that as well as financial issues, there were other concerns pushing Eastleigh to abolish task and finish. He said: “They might do the round a lot slower without task and finish and that's what the council wants to encourage, as there were some health and safety issues with crews trying to do the round too quickly.”

Efficiently

However, trade union UNISON which is representing the striking workers dismissed these claims and said council chiefs were simply being “greedy”.

UNISON regional organiser Peter Terry said that the level of work the refuse collectors is carrying out is what would be expected in a 37.5 hour week but because they are doing it more efficiently, for example by working harder and taking less breaks, they are completing it more quickly.

He explained that by giving them additional duties and axing overtime, the council is effectively asking them to work longer and for less money. Mr Terry said the collectors are being penalised for working harder and being efficient.

He added: “What the employer wants to do is retain the benefit of task and finish but retain the employees when the task is finished. They want to have their cake and eat it, it is just greed.”

Mr Terry also explained that on the health and safety front, UNISON has invited the Health and Safety Executive to come and assess working practices to see if there are any issues and if so, how they could improve. He said there is no evidence to suggest task and finish causes more accidents.

Negotiations

As negotiations continue with the council, Eastleigh's refuse collectors are now “working to rule” which means they will now take the fixed breaks they otherwise would have waived.

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection and an Eastleigh borough resident, said: “If this was in the summer it would be horrendous. If they can't clear the backlog it would have a general effect on our waste bins next week.

“Councils don't allow for strikes or collection problems of this kind as there is no leeway – 14 days should be the absolute maximum. We could end up with our waste sitting out there for up to 17 days and if it isn't sorted out before Christmas, I dread to think what would happen.”