Waste disposal workers are calling for their bosses to be sacked.

Staff at the Cityclean Hollingdean depot in Brighton yesterday passed a vote of no confidence in senior management.

They said morale was at an all-time low and asked to meet Brighton and Hove City Council to air their concerns.

A petition signed by more than 100 workers accused the council's in-house refuse service of a string of problems. But council leaders said the criticism was inappropriate at a time when conditions were improving.

A letter with the petition, sent to chief executive Alan McCarthy on Tuesday, said: "We the undersigned write this letter to the people of Brighton and Hove through The Argus because we feel it is time the public and councillors know about what is going on at the Hollingdean depot of Cityclean. We feel our rights are slowly but continually being eroded and we are being undermined."

The letter said attempts to restore morale by holding meetings with the conciliation service Acas had failed and promises made by the management to establish monthly committees to discuss problems have not been kept.

GMB representative Mark Turner said the union was scheduled to meet council officers in the coming weeks.

Mr McCarthy said changes made within Cityclean had saved £1 million which had been invested in recycling.

He said street cleaning standards had significantly improved since trials with communal bins, wheelie bins had been introduced to about 50,000 homes and kerbside recycling had increased.

Mr McCarthy said: "Since signing up to a partnership agreement between senior members of the GMB, the leader of the council and senior officers, we have met on 12 occasions to discuss progress. The workforce has increased and conditions have improved for the vast majority of staff, who are still among the best paid in the country."