Strike action to affect Norfolk bin collections
Bin collections in North Norfolk could be hit with ongoing strike action after workers voted for industrial action following disputes over pay increases.
The GMB union announced last week (4 October) that its members employed in the area by Kier Environmental Services, which provides residual waste and recycling collection services to North Norfolk District Council as part of an eight-year contract, had voted ‘overwhelmingly’ to strike after the dispute over pay.
According to GMB regional organiser Ivan Mercer, 93 per cent of the workers balloted voted to strike after the company’s “refusal to offer a reasonable pay increase”. He said that two offers “barely above the minimum wage” had been made and rejected and had left members “feeling bullied and harassed”.
The statement suggested that strike action would likely begin in the area on 31 October.
Kier ‘surprised’ at decision of ‘minority group’
In response to GMB’s announcement, Julian Tranter, Kier’s Managing Director of Environmental Services, expressed his surprise, saying that the pay scale had been agreed by a number of unions, including GMB, earlier this year and complied with an agreement on public-sector pay.
He said: “The North Norfolk refuse collection team pay increases are set by the public-sector pay standard known as the National Joint Council (NJC) agreement.
“The GMB, alongside UNITE, Unison and other public-sector bodies agreed the 2016/17 NJC increase of 2.4 per cent over two years (1.2 per cent in 2016 and 1.2 per cent in 2017), earlier this year. So we were understandably surprised when locally 26 GMB members out of our 106 employees, voted to strike and reject the pay increase already negotiated through their union.”
Tranter added that all of the council’s Kier employees are paid ‘at least the living wage’ and that they had been offered a higher increase of between 3.5-4.2 per cent, “as an alternative to the NJC offer if they want to leave the NJC system”, which had been rejected by GMB, which was “instead demanding an increase of 20 per cent”.
“We have tried to keep a dialogue open,” he concluded, “but it seems that this minority group want to pursue strike action. We will continue to pursue resolution, and in the interim will do our upmost to offset any potential impact on service."
GMB rejects ‘simply inaccurate’ comments
However, Richard O’Leary, GMB regional organiser, yesterday (10 October) refuted Tranter’s comments, saying: “The National Joint Council (NJC) negotiate a national cost of living pay award for all NJC local authorities. Pay scales for specific roles are negotiated locally under Part 3 of the Green Book.
“The trade unions and regional employers monitor pay rates across the region on a regular basis. Many local authorities and contractors now pay the real living wage of £8.25 per hour. In reality, Kier Environmental Services have offered nothing to most of our members, their only offer being what they would have to do to comply with the government’s living wage.
“GMB members also do not receive other benefits which transferred under the TUPE Regulations, such as holiday entitlement in line with local authorities. If you calculate the actual hourly rate against the hours worked by staff, a requirement of the Working Time Directive, there is the possibility staff actually receive below the national minimum wage.
“If Kier Environmental Services wish to use local authorities as a benchmark to set pay and terms and conditions, we are very happy to explore that as all local authority employers doing identical jobs receive significantly higher rates of pay and better terms and conditions.”
Industrial action in Norfolk
This is the second attempt at strike action by GMB members to take place in Norfolk in the last year.
Last October, members employed by Kier Refuse Services in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk disputed ‘unreasonable and irrelevant demands on the workforce’ that saw workers made to wear bump caps – caps lined with reinforcement materials – and goggles as part of their personal protection equipment.
On that occasion, GMB Regional Officer Glenn Holdom said that the demands on added safety gear were making the job “more dangerous”, while “more blatant operational and vehicle issues” were not being attended to.
However, the threat of action did not manifest into a strike on that occasion. 
