Bin collections in Adur and Worthing to resume

Refuse workers in Adur and Worthing voted today to pause the strike following talks over the weekend between the GMB, the union for refuse and recycling workers, and Adur and Worthing Councils.

Trucks are going out on rounds this morning ahead of further talks tomorrow on pay and conditions.

GMB has agreed to pause its strike action after a vote by striking members at the council’s refuse, recycling and cleaning service at Commerce Way, Lancing this morning.  

Marine Place in Worthing

Negotiations were halted on March 31 after Unison, the trade union which is officially recognised by the councils to represent staff across all services, made a complaint to the Trade Unions Congress.

The complaint was regarding GMB’s move into recycling and cleansing service just before Christmas by recruiting members, and then immediately threatened strike action. 

But as of April 8, the councils signed a joint recognition agreement with both unions which gives both of them the right to represent staff at the waste service.

The current deal gives all waste workers at least a six per cent pay rise in the first year. HGV drivers have immediately received a 12.7 per cent pay rise.

The bin strike lasted almost a month

In a joint statement the councils and the GMB said: "We have today agreed that there will be a pause in the strike which will allow for waste collections to resume and for work to remove the backlog of waste to begin.

"To recognise the extra work needed a one-off payment will be given to staff to help ensure all backlog work is completed as soon as possible.

"Substantive talks on pay and conditions will begin tomorrow."

A spokesman for Adur & Worthing Councils said: “At all times during this dispute it is our residents and businesses that have been in the forefront of our minds and we have been working to find a way that bin rounds can resume while we work through these very complex issues on pay and conditions within the service.

“We have now come to an arrangement with the GMB that means it will pause its strike which will allow the rounds to restart immediately whilst we move forward to discuss the issues surrounding pay and conditions.

“We thank residents and businesses for their patience and appreciate the difficulties this has caused them. Clearly this is not the end of the matter and there's a lot to work through but for now we can quickly start to get the backlog of refuse cleared.”

GMB Union announced a “complete shutdown” in March of waste services. The GMB announced the strike in February, starting from Monday, March 14.

Out of 155 depot staff, 44 voted for strike action