Dustmen have had their Easter bonuses docked for poor work.

Brighton and Hove City Council is heading for a showdown with 25 workers after withholding £230 due to each of them for working Easter Saturday.

Managers say some of them failed to catch-up rounds following Good Friday's non-collections to a high enough standard while others failed to turn up at all.

The council, which oversees in-house contractor Cityclean, says residents are running out of patience with the workforce and the action is a sign of managers getting tough.

The hard line is likely to further strain relations between management and staff at the Hollingdean depot, which has been the scene of on-off industrial unrest for the past five years.

The workers are represented by the GMB union. Councillor Gill Mitchell, chairwoman of the city's environment committee, said: "It's time the union understands it cannot play fast and loose with council taxpayers' money.

"The public are fast losing their patience. What they want is proper management action and that is what we are taking."

Earlier this year, The Argus revealed the city's binmen would be offered £230 to work Easter Saturday to catch up on Good Friday's missed rounds.

One hundred members of the 350-strong workforce took up the offer but Coun Mitchell said only 75 of those who turned out to work would receive the bonus.

Mark Turner, GMB branch leader, said the union would never expect staff to be paid if they did not turn up to work.

He said: "We do not want to be loose with any council taxpayers' money."

However, he said staff who turned up on Saturday could not collect all the refuse because tips at Small Dole and Henfield were closing early and there was nowhere to dump it.

He said it was unfair these crews should be penalised and this was the issue the union would challenge.

This weekend another catch-up day is planned to account for rounds missed on Easter Monday.

Mr Turner was unable to say whether staff would turn up on Saturday, saying it was up to individual workers.