The council had given SITA until 4pm yesterday to come up with a solution to the crisis which arose when the company sacked 130 workers for striking on Monday. But SITA failed to meet the deadline and discussions took place with the council yesterday afternoon. Environment councillor Chris Morley and council chief executive Glynn Jones met with SITA representatives including managing director Ian Goodfellow, but after five hours of negotiations, the parties could not come to an agreement and talks resumed this morning.
A council spokeswoman said: “The contractual issues have been extremely complex but both parties are in agreement that it is incumbent that they reach an accord so we can once again get the collection service up and running.”
A spokesman for SITA said: “SITA is still talking to the local authority and hopefully a decision will be reached today.” He denied that SITA was trying to lose the Brighton contract as some industry figures have suggested and added: “We are not trying to get rid of the contract, everything we have done has been to try and secure a better service.”
The sacked workers say they will continue their sit-in at Hollingdean waste service depot until SITA ends its contract with the council or the council re-employs all staff.
GMB union official Gary Smith said: “The council has given SITA 48 hours to sort this out and they should have stuck to it. We believe SITA doesn't deserve to keep this contract and it would be right for the council to fire it.”
SITA has been working with other contractors to provide a limited refuse collection service but in some areas there has been no collection since Friday.
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