UP TO 30 agency binmen who refused to go out on rounds because of a pay row have been sacked.

The men were fired by Hays Montrose, the agency which employed them, after they staged an unofficial protest over pay in Brighton and Hove last Friday.

The city council said the industrial action had caused a backlog in collections with hundreds of bags of household refuse left in the streets while staff tried to catch up.

The dispute began when workers employed by Hays Montrose opened their wage packets to find they were being paid for hours worked, rather than a weekly amount.

Some found they had £60 less than expected, despite doing the same work as full-time binmen working directly for the council's in-house Cityclean service.

This week Hays Montrose staff involved in the dispute were informed their "services were no longer required".

Some of them have since been given jobs by Hays Montrose with other companies but they will not be sent to work at the Hollingdean depot where the protest took place.

One 35-year-old agency worker from Hove, who does not want to be named, was told last Sunday he was sacked.

He said: "It's not fair. I was so upset I just cried. I've had depression so this was really hard for me."

He said agency staff had met union leaders at the Labour Club in Lewes Road, Brighton, to join the GMB the night before the unrest.

The man said during the sit-in union representatives told the agency staff they could not take such action.

They spent the morning with managers at the depot in Upper Hollingdean Road trying to resolve the issue.

Fiona Wilding, of Buller Road, Brighton, wrote to The Argus after her partner, who worked for the agency at the depot was also sacked.

She said in her letter her partner had a take-home wage of approximately £130 a week for working at the Hollingdean depot.

She said: "If the council pays for a second-class service, that is what it will get. And remember, it's not the residents of Brighton who pay for second-class service, we have to pay one of the highest rates of council tax in the country.

"My partner has not only been sacked, he was not even allowed to set foot in the depot to be told this in person."

The city's refuse service has been blighted by industrial unrest for more than ten years.

The council hoped to bring an end to poor relations between managers and the workforce by taking the service in-house in October 2001.

But despite the move, relations have remained fractured and bouts of strike action have broken out.

A spokesman for the city council said: "The delays have been caused by last week's industrial action and work to rule. Most of the problems have been in Hove and Patcham."

Hays Montrose refused to comment.