Birmingham bin boss urges striking workers to reconsider ‘very fair’ offer

Birmingham City Council’s bin boss has urged union members to reconsider its “very, very fair offer” as residents report seeing “cat-sized rats” and a striking bin worker fears she could lose her home.

Hundreds of bin workers have been on an indefinite all-out strike since March 11, leaving tonnes of rubbish to build up in the streets, in protest against the council’s plans to cut the role of waste recycling collection officer (WRCO).

Residents have reported terrible smells, fears about their health and huge rats as waste piles up across the city, although the city council says it has managed to collect 17,000 tonnes of rubbish in the past 10 days.

The cash-strapped authority argues that no other council has the WRCO role, and it wants to bring its operations in line with those organisations.

Craig Cooper, the council’s strategic director of city operations, said the WRCO role is “not fit for purpose” and urged striking workers to think again about the offer the local authority has put forward, which he says has included alternative job roles.

Speaking to the PA news agency at the council’s offices in Victoria Square on Tuesday, Mr Cooper said: “My message to Unite is that we have put a very, very fair offer on the table.

“We know that there are 170 WRCOs, we know that 130 of them have already accepted alternatives, whether that’s progression to be drivers and training for that, whether that’s voluntary redundancy, or whether that’s moving to a role of an equal grade and another part of city operations.

“There are about 40 that haven’t, and I urge those 40 to look again at whether or not they want progression, to look again at whether or not they want to stay on the same pay grade and remain within city operations, because that’s a key part of the offer.

“Nobody needs to drop down, but the WRCO role is not a role that exists anymore. It’s not fit for purpose.

“We need a driver and two loaders and like the majority of councils up and down the country, we now need to move to a position where we can get back to normal as quickly as possible.

“I urge Unite to come to the table as swiftly as possible and for us to resolve this, and return the services to where they should be, and to do the transformation that we aspire to deliver.”

His comments come a day after Unite members voted by 97% against the council’s offer of pay protection for a number of workers on 60% turnout, with Unite saying the offer did not address potential pay cuts for 200 drivers and was “totally inadequate”.

Speaking outside the council offices on Tuesday, striking WRCO Wendy, who did not want to give her surname but has been in the role for five years, fears she could lose her house if her wages decrease.

She said she is not asking for more money but wants to keep her wages at the current level rather than see them cut.

She said: “I’m a single parent and I brought up three children. I also rent my property from Birmingham City Council, so if I lose £600 potentially I could lose my home.

“So the impact on it, everything’s going up, but our wages are just stopped there. They are raising everything, especially the council rents, but they want to lower your wages.”

Wendy, from Hall Green, said she loved her job and wanted to get back to work, adding: “When you’re on the back of that wagon, it doesn’t matter if it’s rain, sun, hail, snow, ice – it’s a job where you can have a laugh every day with the family you have created in that yard.

“This is what I like doing. It’s an amazing job, what place can you go in every day and just have a laugh? It’s all family there.”

Bin lorry driver Derek Roberts, who has worked for Birmingham City Council for 33 years, has said the industrial action is being taken out of principle and none of his fellow strikers want to be on the picket line.

He said: “It’s the principle of people losing money during the cost-of-living crisis but also going forward.

“If I’m going to lose £600-a-month for the rest of my working life, it’s worth the sacrifice at the moment, but not one of us wants to be on the picket line.

“We all want to be out collecting rubbish and doing what we’re employed to do.”

He claims the council has said nothing to allay fears that drivers could be the next to have their pay cut.

Mr Roberts, from Longbridge, said: “We need to move the narrative away from the fact that it’s only this (WRCO) role that’s being deleted and that nobody else is affected.

“We’ve already been told as drivers that we will be next. We’re currently going through an evaluation process ourselves which could potentially lead us to the same-sized pay cuts. We haven’t had anything from our employer to allay those fears.”

Meanwhile, some residents have been “taking advantage” of the rubbish piling up and using it as an excuse to fly-tip, Mr Cooper said.

He said: “I think people are being irresponsible in dumping mattresses and fridges. Also, it’s quite clear the refuse that we’re clearing from fly-tip sites that a lot of it is commercial waste. That is completely unacceptable.

“It’s not fair on the residents that live in these areas to see commercial waste dumped outside their houses.

“It’s completely unfair and unjust, and people are taking advantage of the situation.”

Speaking on Tuesday, a Balsall Heath resident who has dozens of black bin bags of waste leaning against the wall in front of her house said she has seen huge rats in her garden.

School worker Carol Downes, 63, said she has seen “cat-sized” rats which have been eating from her bird feeders and running up her driveway.

She said: “They are getting cheeky. They’ve been in my bird feeders, they’ve been everywhere really, I’m keeping the door closed. They can be cat-sized, definitely.”

Another woman, who did not want to be named, described the rats in the city as “brazen”.

She said: “I could hear this banging and it was a rat and it chewed its way into the bin and was trying to get out.

“I opened the lid but you don’t know if it’s going to jump at you or run away.”

Richard Parker, West Midlands Mayor, told BBC Radio 4 that he had not seen any rats and that he thought that claims of rats were being “exaggerated”.

He told World At One: “No one I know has seen one, for most people the only time they have seen one is when someone has flashed a screenshot or a picture on the front of a newspaper and I do think some of the media reporting has been irresponsible.”

Asked if he did not think rats would be attracted to piles of rubbish, he said: “It is inevitable they will be, but I think the position is exaggerated.”

Talks between the city council and Unite are expected to continue on Wednesday as the all-out strike enters its fifth week.