Industrial action took place between 27 August and 3 September, with 130 loaders and drivers employed by the council taking part. This comes after 99% voted in favour of action when balloted by the Unite Union.
The union reasoned that an operative in Newham earns £22,850 compared to £24,763 for a worker in Greenwich doing the same work.
Unite claimed that Newham offered a “measly” £850 annual uplift, when workers demanded £2,300 to “address pay disparities and the cost of living crisis”.
Measures
On Saturday (3 September), the day strike action ended, Newham council set out how it plans to tackle the backlog and also the offer currently on the table.
The council said four drop off sites will remain open across the borough for residents to bring waste to.
Newham added that it will continue to prioritise collections from flats and city centres because of fire concerns.
Newham refuse workers strike back at rubbish pay
Workers want a real pay rise, not blather that obscures the truth about what they get pic.twitter.com/8mYJJG26y7— Byron Calloway (@ByronCalloway1) September 4, 2022
Sick pay
Newham council, which runs an in-house service, said it has already agreed to a request for sick pay to be paid on contractual Saturdays following or preceding bank holidays.
A variation of terms and conditions for overtime payments is now being progressed across the council, the Labour-controlled authority explained.
This would mean for 7.25 hours overtime Monday to Saturday, a driver would get about £19 extra in the hand, while an operative would get roughly £14 extra in the hand.
Payments
The Newham council statement added: “The council has made an offer of £100 per Driver/Operative for the eight Bank Holiday weeks relating to the completion of rounds on those weeks.
“In addition we are retaining a Christmas payment as part of the agreed negotiations to date. This is a £50 flexible payment paid for any of three statutory days worked. As part of the negotiations we offered to increase this to £100 for each of the three days for all of our frontline staff in Public Realm.
“This additional £950 equates to increases of salary of 4.3% for operatives and 3.0% for drivers, this is in addition to the national offer and the increased rate for overtime in our council review of terms and conditions.”
The National pay offer is currently a £2,229 increase for all staff across the whole council. Applied in waste and recycling this equates to 9.7% to 9.9% for operatives and up to 8.4% for drivers, Newham said.
We will continue to take forward negotiations with Unite
– Newham council
Retention payments
One area the two parties are failing to agree is retention payments.
The union has requested an annual retention payment of 10%, which the council says it is not able to offer.
“We, like other councils, are bound by the national negotiations which operate in local government to ensure fairness for all staff employees,” the authority explained.
In a statement, Newham council added: “We will continue to take forward negotiations with Unite following the conclusion of this current strike action as we always strive to find positive solution’s with our staff.”
Newham council recorded a 20,9% recycling rate in 2020/21, and serves around 350,000 residents.
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