Refuse collectors today rejected two new pay deals as the dispute over Brighton and Hove's uncollected rubbish raged on.

Bin bags have been piling up in city streets since Tuesday, when binmen refused to make advertised collections to clear the bank holiday backlog.

They claimed they had been verbally abused by members of the public after The Argus revealed they were to be paid a £230 bonus for working tomorrow in exchange for taking Bank Holiday Monday off.

They are also angry bosses refused to replace an HGV driver from the street cleaning team who retired and have expressed concern about changes to their operations, including the introduction of wheelie and communal bins.

Brighton and Hove's in-house contractor Cityclean has refused to pay the full £230 bonus because of the disruption caused to the public.

Under the bank holiday plan, the collection schedule was to have been put back a day. But instead of collecting Monday's rubbish on Tuesday, collectors stuck to their usual pattern, leaving Monday's bin bags lying in the streets.

Despite four hours of talks last night, Cityclean and GMB union officials failed to resolve the bust-up.

This morning, refuse workers rejected two offers tabled by management.

The first offered each crew member the £230 bonus if they cleared the backlog of rubbish by Friday September 5, and signed an agreement to undertake trials of wheelie bins and communal containers.

The second offered £115 with no strings attached if the backlog was cleared by the same date.

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said although the union did not recommend its members reject the options, he felt they were both inadequate.

He said: "We met the workforce this morning and presented them with the two options. The GMB in no way attempted to put a slant on what was being offered and did not recommend they reject the options - but they did.

"What the management is trying to do is link the payment the workforce should receive for working tomorrow with changes to the service. The two issues should be dealt with separately.

"A written agreement on trials could take four weeks to negotiate, which means binmen will have to wait all that time before being paid what they are due.

"They are more than happy to collect the backlog of rubbish as long as they are not paid a penny more or less than the £230 they should be.

"There has never been a written agreement stating the methods they should use to do that, so why should they be denied the money promised?"

Chairman of the Environment Committee Councillor Gill Mitchell said the offers were sensible and the £230 could not be paid out because normal bank holiday procedures had not been followed.

She said: "The local union seems intent on disrupting the service for reasons beyond my comprehension. In addition to the current problems we want to improve the service.

"For instance, residents are crying out for recycling but the union uses blocking tactics every time we try to introduce new schemes.

"Many other towns and cities across Britain have wheelie bins. For the workforce it would mean less manual handling and a cleaner job.

"I cannot believe residents would condone the council caving in to unreasonable demands."

Mr Turner said binmen were not planning industrial action and hoped the talks would continue today.

Friday August 29, 2003