Birmingham Refuse Collectors Resume Strike Action
4 February 2019, 12:54 | Updated: 4 February 2019, 12:59
Refuse collectors in the city, who took part in a three-month strike in 2017, are to stage fresh walkouts in an escalating row over pay.
Members of Unite at Birmingham City Council have been banning overtime and working to rule since the end of December, after the union said workers who did not take part in the previous strikes had been given extra payments by the authority.
The union announced that its 350 members involved in the dispute will strike for two days a week from February 19th.
The council has said it offered binding arbitration to resolve the row, and talks were held at the conciliation service Acas.
Howard Beckett, Unite's assistant general secretary, said: "This dispute is entirely of Birmingham Council's making, following a decision to pay extra money to a small group of workers who did not take strike action."
The council has already announced changes to its contingency plans because of the work to rule, including a temporary, fortnightly service.
A spokesman said payments to workers were as a result of a failure to consult during the negotiations that ended the 2017 dispute, adding: "They were not payments for working during the industrial action."
