Bin strike continues to cost Adur & Worthing councils
Councillors will now be asked to release funding of more than £100,000 at a meeting in June.
Councillors are being asked to release funds to settle an industrial dispute with refuse workers.
Around 60 workers within Adur and Worthing Councils’ refuse and recycling service went on strike over pay and conditions in March.
The strike lasted five weeks and saw the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) brought in to mediate talks between the councils, GMB (which represents the workers who went on strike), and UNISON.
An improved pay deal was agreed and the strike came to an end in April.
The GMB called the deal a ‘massive win for workers’ but warned they could strike again ‘if the council breaks its promises’.
Adur and Worthing councillors will now be asked to release funding of more than £100,000 at a meeting in June.
This could help to fund the agreed pay rise of between six and 12.7 per cent for the councils’ refuse workers – depending on their role.
Goring councillor and former council leader Kevin Jenkins said that the cost of the pay rises would have to be met by a ‘service redesign’ or ‘budgetary changes’.
If this is not possible, he warned that the cost could be passed on to council taxpayers.
In a previous statement, Mr Jenkins said: “It should be remembered that Worthing Borough Council only receives 15 per cent of the money that residents pay in council tax (the rest goes to West Sussex County Council and the Police & Crime Commissioner).
“Therefore, any excessive pay increases place a disproportionate burden on local services.”
WBC’s new leader Dr Rebecca Cooper (Labour, Marine ward) supported the striking workers, adding that they ‘would not strike on a whim’.
During the strike, the councils called in contractors to ‘skim’ rubbish from high risk areas such as communal bins at blocks of flats and care homes. The total cost of this has not yet been confirmed to the press.