Strike called off at Sheffield recycling centres

An indefinite strike at Sheffields five household waste recycling centres has been called off after a deal was brokered this week.

Over thepast fewweeks, staff from SOVA have been striking at the sites in protest at proposed job losses and 20% cuts to the hours of remaining staff. The strike action has been coordinated by their union, the GMB.

However, on Wednesday (July 4) the GMB agreed a number of new terms and conditions with SOVA, Sheffield city council and the councils main waste contractor Veolia. Workers are now planning to return to work on Monday (July 9) after 28 days of strike action in total.

Under the new deal, workers hours will be cut by just 9% and all 34 employees will be able to keep their jobs. They will also have a new bonus deal which could see them earn up to 2 extra an hour.

Councillor Jack Scott, cabinet member for environment, waste and streetscene at Sheffield city council, said: I am glad we have been able to work together to find a solution to this situation.

Lets be clear, if we hadnt been hit with 55m of Government cuts we would never have been put in this position in the first place.

Today we have reached an agreement with the unions which includes reviewing training and support to staff to raise skills among other things, which will ensure productivity continues. We know there are other issues which still need to be addressed, but we are keeping all channels of communication open to resolve these as quickly as possible to avert any further action.

GMB

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Peter Davies from the GMB, who has been coordinating the strike action on behalf of the SOVA workers, said that he was very pleased by the outcome.
However, he stressed that the strike action had only been suspended because the union had to be sure that the conditions agreed upon would materialise.

He said: We are very pleased. It is a shame that it has taken this action and a campaign by over 5,000 people in Sheffield to get it but I am glad that the Labour council has listened and acted.

Green waste

Mr Davies added that the council was now also interested in talking to SOVA and the GMB about green waste in the city. The council used to provide a free green waste service for residents in the North West of the city but this has been replaced with an unpopular charged-for service.

He said: They thought the public would buy green waste bags from Veolia at 1.25 but they havent. So they gave residents permission to put green waste in the residual bins but that means an increase in landfill disposal costs and the bins are too heavy to pull.

“So now the council are having a full review of green waste, especially as they are moving to fortnightly collections when the bins will not be able to cope with residual waste and green waste at the same time.

We are going to be setting up a series of meetings with SOVA and the council to talk about a green waste strategy. We also think that fortnightly collections will make demand for recycling centres increase.

AWC

Mr Davies comments came as Sheffield council announced August 13 2012 as the date for the introductionof its alternate weekly collection service, which has proved controversial.

Under the new system, black bins for residual waste will be emptied on one week and the citys blue boxes or blue bins for recyclable material will be emptied on the same day the following week.

Councillor Scott said: We would not be making this change if the Government had not drastically cut our budget last year and forced us to find 55m of cuts. Moving to alternate weekly collections was a tough decision, but it was the right decision.