Brighton binmen strike over pay cuts

Cuts in take-home pay will affect about 450 of the council’s 8,000 staff including 270 workers at Cityclean. Frank le Duc reports on the dispute

Next week the result of the binmen’s strike ballot will be known. They walked out on unofficial strike just under three weeks ago, angry about a proposal to cut the overtime payments on which many of them rely. The biggest losers will be about £4,000 a year worse off. The number of men losing their union’s headline figure is in single figures. But the typical shortfall of about £1,000 a year affects most of those who empty our bins and clean our streets.

The GMB union represents about 270 of the workers who will be hardest hit. The union understands the reasons for the review of pay and allowances that has triggered the current dispute. But it wants a solution that doesn’t take money away from people whose basic salary is just under £15,500 a year. Brighton and Hove City Council said that such a solution would not be affordable.

The council is trying to ensure fair pay and allowances for comparable groups of employees. It has a legal duty to do this. And it is offering compensation to those who will lose out under its proposals. The lump sum compensation is equal to three year’s losses. So someone losing £1,000 a year would be paid a one-off sum of £3,000.

Council chief executive Penny Thompson said: “I don’t want anybody to think that we are at all taking for granted how serious this is for individuals but it can’t be left. For most people this doesn’t have an impact. For the 10 per cent on whom it does have an impact, I don’t want to minimise that. They are anxious, angry and concerned. I understand and empathise with that. But the existing mish-mash of arrangements are unfair although they weren’t meant to be.”

The existing arrangements are in large part down to the merger of Brighton Borough Council and Hove Borough Council in 1997. The new council also included a sizeable number of East Sussex County Council employees who served the Brighton and Hove area. As a result the new organisation inherited several sets
of pay and conditions. Work to streamline these has taken place, with basic salary bands equalised some time ago. The latest proposals are intended to finish the job.

The binmen and street cleaners at Cityclean are not the only losers in this process. They are though the biggest single group to suffer – and possibly the best organised. On the second day of their wildcat strike earlier in the month they marched on Brighton Town Hall and confronted council leader Jason Kitcat. He was unable to make himself heard over the chants directed at him.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, spoke for a number of her party colleagues when she said: “Since the negotiations began, I have made my opposition to any cuts in take-home pay very clear. I am therefore disappointed that, while some will gain from this process, a number will face a reduction in the money they have to live off each week. This is unacceptable. I have pledged to campaign against proposals made to workers that will lead to a loss of pay, in accordance with the local and national party’s democratically agreed anti-cuts and anti-austerity policies.”

Councillor Kitcat said that the proposals were unrelated to austerity cuts and would lead to an overall increase in the council’s budget for pay and allowances. He said that poorly paid women would be the main winners. He also said the Green policies would bring more opportunities to make up lost earnings for the Cityclean staff based at the depot in Hollingdean. He wants to see widespread food waste collections and the more regular emptying of communal bins, including at weekends. One downside for rounds with communal bins, though, is the loss of tips at Christmas.

So while binmen and street cleaners would lose out in the short term, they would be generously compensated, he said, while having the chance to pick up more overtime in the long term. The aim is to reach agreement with the unions and staff as soon as possible. If not, the council may impose the scheme by October. The mood in Hollingdean suggests that a solution is not in sight and that the binmen are ready for a fight.