6:00am Tuesday 10th November 2009
By Andy Chiles
Binmen in Brighton and Hove will vote today on whether to suspend their two week strike against proposed pay cuts.
With large piles of rubbish already building up across the city, the 300 striking workers will hold a meeting at 11am at the Hollingdean Depot to discuss a new pay offer from Brighton and Hove City Council.
The deal was presented to their union, the GMB, by the council after two crisis meetings yesterday.
Our report from the picket line at Hollingdean depot on the first day of the strike.
GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said he was happy enough with the offer to present it to the workers today but the decision to accept it would be up to them.
Mr Turner said last night: "We will hold a ballot at the end of that meeting over whether to suspend the strikes for 56 days. I can't pre-empt what the members will do. It is an offer I am willing to present to them but I don't know whether they will take it."
If the CityClean staff vote in favour of suspending the strike they will return to work on Wednesday morning and start clearing the piles of rubbish which have built up.
The two week strike started yesterday and followed a work-to-rule which began last Thursday.
The 300 workers are among 800 across the council who have been threatened with pay cuts of between £2,000 and £8,000 each.
The CityClean staff have an average wage of around £19,000.
The council has proposed the cuts to meet new equalities laws which mean it cannot pay some unskilled workers more than others.
At present refuse staff have a higher salary than others, including teaching assistants and library workers.
It has tried to lower pay at CityClean rather than raise it elsewhere.
Both the council and GMB declined to disclose the details of the latest offer last night.
Council leader Mary Mears spoke about the dispute for the first time yesterday.
She said: “The council has made a proposal to the GMB about how it intends to implement fair pay and the union has agreed to put it to its members tomorrow.
"We feel it balances our duty to protect the pay of our employees while avoiding passing on unnecessary costs to the council taxpayer.
“We’re hopeful the union will accept the offer so that our staff can return to work as soon as possible.”
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