Union members will decide whether to take strike action if Brighton and Hove dustmen's problems are not sorted out in the next fortnight.

The GMB, the main union representing the refuse collectors, warned that if the the issues of workloads and differing pay rates are not fixed, industrial action may follow.

But union officials say they hope their continuing negotiations with Sita, the company awarded the contract to collect domestic rubbish, will solve the problems without any disruption.

Both Sita and Brighton and Hove Council are anxious to prevent any form of industrial action in the run up to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton later this month.

Sita, awarded the £6.7 million contract for the 126,000 homes in the borough, has still not resolved several difficulties with the new rounds it introduced last month.

The new system at first brought chaos to the rubbish collection system in Brighton and Hove, with some households not having a collection for up to five weeks.

Some crews claim the rounds they have been given are unworkable and cannot be done in a normal working day.

And the time taken for each dustcart to make the 20-mile round trip to the landfill tip at Small Dole, near Henfield, has not been properly taken into consideration, they say.

Some crews have been finishing before 1pm on some days, while others have been returning to the depot in Upper Hollingdean Road, Brighton, as late as 6pm after a 7am start.

Sita is sending out time and motion consultants with crews to try and resolve the uneven workload.

At a meeting of the GMB in Brighton last night, several members who work on the refuse collecting crews expressed concern that matters had not been resolved.