Refuse Workers’ Face Up To A Third Reduction In Pay

14 Sep 2009

Leeds City Council has announced that it intends to cut the wages of refuse workers by one third – on average from £18,000 to just £13,000 a year.

Members of the public services unions UNISON and the GMB are now reluctantly taking strike action after the Council refused to negotiate any alternative to these massive pay cuts.

If they were imposed on our members, hundreds of workers and their families would lose their homes.

The Council seems hell-bent on forcing this strike under the guise of creating equal pay across the authority.

But other local authorities throughout the country have managed to implement equal pay policies without plunging their cleansing workers into poverty.

The Council’s own Job Evaluation Panel came out 6 to 1 against the proposed pay cuts but the political leadership has chosen to ignore its own process to force the strike.

UNISON Regional Organiser Tony Pearson said: “We have apologised to the people of Leeds and we feel they understand that we have no choice.

“Ask anyone whether they could survive if they lost a third of their wages at a stroke and the answer would be a resounding no.

“Our members do some of the hardest and most important jobs in the city.
“The unions have always supported service improvements which would mean pay levels could be maintained without costing Council Tax payers a penny.”

GMB Regional Organiser Desiree Risebury, said: “Council leader Richard Brett, who pocketed £48,000 in “allowances” from the public purse last year, has said refuse staff are “well-paid”.

“He has defended cutting their pay by a third as “fair” and then peddled groundless allegations of public disorder on the picket lines.

“He and his spin doctors are treating this dispute as a game which they think they can win by misleading the public - who pay their wages - through propaganda.

“But it is not a game for our members and it is not a game for the public they serve. Our door is always open for talks but so far the Council has not accepted that invitation.”

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For further information contact Tony Pearson on 07944 191692 and Desiree Risebury on 07958156848