Kier has ended the strike deadlock with recycling and food waste workers in Bath and North East Somerset following successful talks between Kier and Unite held on Monday (18th January).
The talks were followed with a revised offer to union members yesterday, which was accepted.
This brings to an end strike and industrial action, including an overtime refusal and work to rule.
Kier and Unite resumed talks in order to explore a restructured deal, which changes the phasing of pay increases over a three year period (backdated to 2015, 2016 and 2017).
Although little more money could be added to the overall package, Kier has been working behind the scenes during the strike to re-engineer elements of the contract and operation to enable the offer to be more heavily front loaded during the three year period.
Julian Tranter, managing director of Kier Environmental explained: “We appreciate how much disruption the strike, overtime refusal and work to rule has caused for residents, and understand their frustration that so little could be done to off-set the impact when strike laws prevent the use of additional agency workers to cover those undertaking industrial action.
“With the council’s support on our approach and offer, we have worked very hard through ACAS to try to prevent any strike taking place, and during the strike to try to re-engineer an offer that could be used to encourage union members to re-enter talks.
“We are naturally very pleased that the union chose to re-enter talks, and equally that the revised more front loaded offer was accepted by members today.
“Once again we apologise for the disruption caused to residents and thank them for their support in continuing to recycle during the dispute.”
Bath and North East Somerset Council made the following statement: “The Council is pleased to learn that talks between our recycling contractor Kier and the Unite union have been successful meaning that industrial action has now ended.
“The Council would like to thank all our residents for their patience and support while we’ve been striving to clear the backlog of recycling.
“The Council understands that the Kier crews are back to making their normal scheduled recycling and food waste collections from today [Tuesday 19th January].
“The Council’s crews are continuing to clear any backlog and anticipate completing this by the weekend so that all recycling and food waste collections will be back to normal by the beginning of next week.
“Residents should put out their recycling and food waste on their normal collection days.
“We’re also grateful to members of the public who have offered their services to assist with the recycling effort.
“We currently have 7 extra crews out on the road. We also have an additional truck to help with the outstanding food waste collections.
Key messages from the Council to assist in collecting the recycling:
- They are asking residents to keep putting their recycling out on their scheduled collection day and leave it out if it is not picked up. If you do not want to leave it out overnight, take it back in after 4.30pm and put it out before 7am the following morning.
- They will collect your recycling and food waste as soon as they can.
- If you see your recyclables being collected in what looks like a bin lorry instead of the usual recycling lorry then be assured this waste is still being recycled, it is just being collected by a different vehicle.
- The Council’s priority is to ensure that as much waste as possible is recycled – it is really important that materials which can be recycled do not go to landfill.
- Note that rubbish and garden waste/ Christmas tree collections are unaffected. For details about Christmas tree collections, please visit the garden waste collections page of the Council’s website.
The Council say they are very pleased with the response from the public who are continuing to recycle and supporting their teams on the street. They are committed to getting the recycling collected as soon as possible. The Council will be reclaiming additional costs it has incurred through its efforts directly from Kier.
If residents can follow the recycling advice below, this will help support efforts in dealing with the recycling situation even quicker.
Recycling advice:
- During this week whilst they’re catching up, please continue to put your recycling out on your scheduled collection day and leave it out if it is not picked up – they will get to you as soon as they can.
- Please ensure that your recycling is secured so it cannot blow about. Please also ensure that you recycling containers do not cause an obstruction to others.
- It is vital that you continue to recycle your waste – please do not put recycling into your black bin bags as this could slow down your normal refuse collections too.
The Council are thanking locals for their patience and co-operation as they strive to clear the backlog.
