Birmingham bin strike talks break down as council reaches ‘absolute limit’ in pay offer

The Municipal Assembly announced that Birmingham ended six -month thousand strikes because it has reached the “absolute limit” that it can offer to solve the dispute.

Unite members representing the workers have been on the All-Out strike since the beginning of March and leads to stacking garbage on the streets of the city.

The union began to strike after claiming that the decision of the Council’s decision to remove the roles of waste recycling and collection officers (WRCO) would mean that 170 workers would face losing £ 8,000 per year.

The Council said that the change is necessary as part of a restructuring effort aimed at improving the service and complying with the 2021 Environmental Law.

The recycling rate of the city is the lowest level of any unitary authority in the country, except Liverpool, with 22.9 percent. If the government does not meet the 65 percent target rate by 2035, it may face a decrease in grant financing.

Council leader John Cotton said in a statement on Wednesday: “During this process, the Council tried to be reasonable and flexible, but we reached the absolute limit of what we can present.

Uz We negotiated in good faith, but unfortunately Unite rejected all offers, so we must now stand out both to address our equal fee risk and to make much -needed improvements in waste service. This is a service that has not been good enough for a long time and we have to improve it.

“Unite’s demands would leave us with another equal wage bill, which was completely unacceptable and would endanger the important progress we have made in our financial recovery.

“We must be fair for all our staff, and ultimately I will not repeat the mistakes of the past by taking decisions that will cause more deductions and more councils to be sold in the services.”

Acas has been holding negotiations between the two groups since May.

Spokesman Kevin Rowan said: “It is unfortunate that these talks are unfortunate. Acas continues to be used if the situation changes.”