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Reporting local life since 1854
Saturday, August 18, 2012
TOKEN COLLECT: SEE PAGE 18
60p
Crews clock off before rounds are complete
PROTESTING BIN MEN ON A ‘GO SLOW’ BY ALEX CAMPBELL
alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
‘GOLDEN GIRL’ RETURNS HOME SEE PAGE 5
HUNDREDS of bins are being left unemptied at the roadside as workers stage an unofficial ‘go slow’ over working conditions and cuts to overtime payments. Stoke-on-Trent City Council is drafting in crews for extra rounds to collect bins as talks with union leaders continue. Some residents across the Potteries are having waste picked up a day late but other collections have been missed altogether. Unions say workers are clocking off before rounds are completed to avoid ‘cutting corners’ on health and safety. But council officials claim they are taking an ‘unreasonable’ amount of time to complete their rounds because they are angry about overtime cuts. The row has erupted over the council’s decision to axe a ‘contractual overtime’ perk revealed by The Sentinel last month. It saw £291,000 paid in overtime over four years to dozens of workers, including bin wagon drivers, who did not have to work any extra hours to claim the payment.
Concerns have now been raised about the cost of sending out extra crews – including some for emergency Saturday collections. Labour councillor Duncan Walker, of Borrowdale Road, Norton, said: “The council sent an extra crew to empty our blue bins on Friday, August 10. “They had not been emptied since July 25 and should have been emptied on August 8, so our collection was missed completely. These extra runs must be costing money.” Jim Gibson, aged 59, of Homer Place, Chell Heath, below, said: “There have been problems on the estate with some bins emptied a day late and others picked up later in the week. “I have some sympathy with the bin men because things have been cut to the bone. “On the one hand the council tells us we’ll be fined if we leave our bins out. Now, because it suits them, they’re telling us to be patient.” GMB convenor Jeff Birks blamed the issue on ‘unequal’ rounds which force some crews to empty more bins than others. He added: “The collections were running as task and finish. That means you finish when
the task is completely done. But we have an ageing workforce and the lads can’t keep running around like they have been doing at 40 to 50 years of age. “They are now working to the clock and to health and safety.” Geoff Dunne, the council’s strategic manager for waste collection, blamed the overtime row for delays in an internal email seen by The Sentinel. He said: “Crews were continually and easily completing rounds well within the nominal time every day and were actually working for less than 37 hours – in some cases significantly less – and yet being paid 42 hours. Clearly this had to stop. “However, this change has proven extremely unpopular with the crews – rather bizarrely as only drivers received contractual overtime – and they have unofficially withdrawn their goodwill and are now taking much longer to complete their rounds, unreasonably so in most cases.” Dawn Hewins, assistant director of HR, said: “We apologise for any disruption to service. We are continuing dialogue with refuse collectors and unions. We hope the situation will be resolved soon.”
CITY ALL SET FOR PREMIER KICK-OFF POPE: FANS NEED TO BE REALISTIC BACK PAGE
What do you think? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk
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