On the bins…

Employers are using “fire and re-hire” tactics (Clarks shoes, Douwe Egberts, etc) in long established firms where terms and conditions/pensions are better than in many new firms. Basically the employer in “fire and re-hire” gives the employee notice than in 3 months’ time they will have to sign up for new terms/conditions/pensions or leave the firms without redundancy payments. This a savage, inhuman way to treat employees which many Tory MP’s pretend to oppose but will not support legislation in Parliament banning it.

The object of “fire and re-hire” is to get an employee to work more hours for less in pay/terms and conditions/pensions. It is a fairly basic and “time-honoured” way of attacking workers, particularly if they are not unionised.

But “fire and re-hire” is not the only way to achieve the employers’ objective of less pay and more work. Every home in the UK has a bin (and often 2 or 3) that needs emptying regularly. In most Councils the number of houses has gone up (through new developments) and the number of bin workers has gone down as managers promise to empty the bins through “task and finish”.

Task and finish is a form of “stick and carrot” management whereby workers are encouraged to rush round, break rules (including health and safety), start early, miss breaks and not return to the depot for meals. It is dangerous, sets worker against worker (they often finish at significantly different times) and encourages managers to bully. Bullying can include racism, sickness dismissal, no alternative employment for disabilities, wanting a younger workforce and unacceptable comments/practices.

Managers offer a style of management which is aggressive and unethical, often breaking Council policies on conduct.

Across Britain over the last 12 months industrial disputes have broken out regularly on the bins – dozens of disputes. They take different forms. In privatised bin companies (more prominent in London and the South) the issue is often local wage rates (and cuts in them). In “in-house” bin services this is coupled with bullying/racism as well. But the dividing line between in-house/outsourced services is not that clear- what is clear is there are other ways to get more work out of people than “fire and re-hire”, i.e. “speed-up”, increasing rounds, cutting overtime rates, altering established practices (i.e. Christmas closures, working days, weekend/overtime payments).

Additionally, in some areas, high demand for qualified HGV drivers means that drivers can demand higher wages. This can have two consequences. Where the bins are privatised there is a straightforward issue of pay comparability. Pay can be more complicated in local authorities because of the restraints of local authority job evaluation processes and equal pay claims, but the job evaluation process is not ‘set in stone’ and there  is also the facility  to pay ‘top-up’ payments in areas of work where ‘recruitment and retention’ is difficult. Either way there is scope for local increases in pay.

What is needed is a united response. Time for Real Change is calling for a co-ordinated response from the 3 main unions involved (Unite, UNISON and GMB).

Working on the bins is hard work and we need to ensure that this group of workers – who are very likely to be unionised – combine across the UK for their mutual benefit.

Paul Holmes is the National President of UNISON and was recently re-elected as Secretary of Kirklees UNISON Branch