Birmingham bin strike begins amid ‘secret payments’ row, as piles of bags fester in street

‘It’s a nightmare and we don’t want things to get as bad as they were last time’

The 2017 bin strike lasted for three months and saw the city swamped with uncollected refuse (PA)

Industrial action is underway by bin workers in Birmingham amid a row with the council over alleged “secret payments” to workers who refused to take part in strikes over job losses in 2017.

Workers for rival union GMB who did not strike received payments not made to other workers, but the council has said this was a “settlement” because they had not been consulted in talks that ended those walkouts.

The new round of industrial action will see 300 bin workers strike, with Unite Union saying the payments amount to their members “being blacklisted by the council”, and has called for equal pay for all.

Piles of bin bags are reportedly already festering on the streets in some parts of the city, and collections are now scheduled to continue fortnightly until the row is resolved.

Birmingham City Council said a “reasonable” offer had been made to workers to solve the dispute.

This was rejected by Unite, who said: “Peace talks aimed at resolving the dispute collapsed last week, when Birmingham council made a poorer offer than that which was previously on the table.”

The union’s assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: “Birmingham bin workers are taking strike action as a last resort.”

He added: “The resolution to this dispute is in the hands of Birmingham council which needs to end the discrimination and make payments to Unite members equal to what the non-striking workers have already received.”

A woman who gave her name as Monta and runs a cafe in Birmingham city centre told The Independent there are already problems with mounting rubbish in residential areas.

She said: “Everyone is really, really fed up. We are having to drop everything off ourselves and we’re still paying the council. For four weeks no-one’s come and taken the plastic or anything.

“It’s a nightmare and we don’t want things to get as bad as they were last time. That really was a nightmare.”

The 2017 strikes began in June and lasted for three months.

Birmingham residents would normally expect a weekly bin collection and fortnightly recycling collection, but there are widespread reports of missed collections in recent weeks.

Unite said the industrial action will intensify, beginning with two days a week of strike action in addition to an overtime ban.

Picket lines will be in place at all of the council’s refuse depots from 5am today until 2pm.

Unison workers are also planning to strike, with their first walk-out scheduled for Friday.

A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “We would urge Unite to continue talks as we want to resolve this matter, so citizens get the refuse collection service they rightly expect and deserve.”