Edinburgh to stop refuse workers ‘finishing early’

The council has said it will put an end to ‘task and finish’ working practices from the end of October due to safety reasons.

The working practice – which sees employees start collections and clock off early – has long been tolerated in many parts of the UK but has recently come under scrutiny, including in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (see letsrecycle.com story).

According to confidential council documents leaked to the Edinburgh Evening News last month, concerns have been raised because the practice might encourage collection crews to rush their work – which could potentially breach health and safety.

‘Underfunded’

But Unite – the Edinburgh refuse workers’ trade union – argues the impending changes are a diversion from the council’s underfunding of the refuse service, which is already overstretched.

Unite City of Edinburgh council convener, Peter Lawson, said the union’ members “have been struggling to keep the city clean in the face of massive cuts” and that the council’s environmental services budget “has fallen by at least £17 million in real terms since 2009”.

He said: “We have a clear message for council members – their phoney war about working practices will not solve the fundamental problem of a lack of investment in the city’s refuse services.”

Mr Lawson added: “The council needs to be honest with people. Pretending that changing working practices is going to fix problems is not helping anyone. Councillors need to admit that the service is underfunded, and start having an open conversation with Edinburgh’s citizens and the Scottish Government about how to address that crisis.”

Changes

Households in Edinburgh have recently seen a number of service changes, including the introduction of communal dry recycling bins and a reduction in the size of residual bins.

The city council estimates that as a result of the improvements, its city-wide recycling rate for 2015/16 could increase to around 41.7% compared to 39.1% in 2014/15 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Lesley Hinds, City of Edinburgh Council’s transport and environment convener, said: “Waste collections have been through huge changes over the last five years, which have seen our recycling rates increase to 44%. The ending of Task and Finish is another change that forms part of a long term improvement plan to ensure that waste collection is an efficient, effective and customer focussed service.

“We have been liaising closely with the workforce throughout this process and will continue to meet with Unite colleagues to set out improvement measures in detail.”