Union warns of “choppy waters” for waste services

The union which threatened Veolia with strike action over its alleged plans to cut jobs and pay for its workers on council contracts has warned that there are “choppy waters ahead” for waste services as councils look to reduce their budgets.

The comments from the GMB union came as it issued a joint statement with Veolia revealing that it had lifted last week's threat of a strike ballot (see letsrecycle.com story), after receiving a personal assurance from Veolia's chief operating officer Tom Spaul that no Veolia employee would lose their job.

The union's national officers, Rehana Azam and Justin Bowden met with Mr Spaul in Derby on Friday (September 17) – a meeting that resulted in Veolia withdrawing the HR1 form which the GMB had claimed threatened to change the terms and conditions for workers on at least 196 of Veolia's council contracts.

Veolia and the GMB described the meeting as “frank and open” and explained that: “In the light of Tom Spaul's intervention, including his commitment to re-open consultations afresh and enter into meaningful negotiations with the GMB within an agreed process, the GMB has agreed with immediate effect to lift the threat of any legal or industrial action.”

And, speaking to letsrecycle.com today (September 21), Mr Bowden noted that the situation had “greatly improved” since the GMB made its original threat of industrial action, and said that the two parties would be “effectively starting afresh” at their next meeting, scheduled for this Friday (September 24).

Collection contractors

However, he painted a less rosy picture of the situation for waste services in general, claiming that many councils were already talking informally to their collection contractors about how cuts could be made.

“Without a doubt there are very choppy waters ahead,” he said. “What you have got at the moment is all local government contractors being sounded out by local authorities for cuts and its being commonly suggested the size of those is around 15-30%”.

“To take 15% off a refuse collection budget, let alone 30%, has to have a really serious effect on a service.”

Councils are expected to face significant cuts to their budgets in next month's government Spending Review, with the Local Government Association warning earlier this week that this could lead to them facing a £20 billion funding shortfall for services such as waste and recycling by 2014/15 (see letsrecycle.com story).

In particular, Mr Bowden said contractors would find themselves in a “squeeze” trying to satisfy both local authorities looking to reduce costs and government's opposition to alternate weekly collections – which he identified as a cost-saving measure.

“It's a highly labour intensive business so the only thing you can look towards is fortnightly collections, but the government have said they don't support them, so I can't see how services can be met without it affecting jobs,” he said.

And, raising the spectre of potential industrial unrest, Mr Bowden said that, with waste collection workers earning below £20,000 on average, the potential for opposition to pay cuts was increased, adding that: “We'll have a situation where people will stand up for themselves.”