120 bins workers still locked in council talks

FORCED REDUNDANCY STILL 'A LAST RESORT', PLEDGES CITY LEADER

- JANE HAYNES News Reporter

MORE than 100 bin workers in Birmingham remain locked in consultation talks over their futures as the damaging dispute that's blighted the city enters its ninth month.

Council leader Cllr John Cotton pledged that forced redundancy will be “very much a last resort”, with “alternative jobs” still being sought for those affected.

He spoke out after union Unite announced that in a fresh ballot its striking workforce had “overwhelmingly” backed a mandate to continue to take industrial action against the city council until March.

Currently, a total of 121 council staff, all driver team leaders, are going through a formal consultation process as part of the controversial shake up of the local authority's waste service.

The revamp was one of the triggers for strike action in January. An estimated 200 more bin workers are also facing uncertainty. Some 113 staff on the bins have taken voluntary redundancy since the start of the year.

Cllr Cotton said expressions of interest in alternative roles or voluntary redundancy from staff via the consultation process were “currently being worked through”.