Update on strike action in the waste and recycling service

We are sorry for the disruption the strike action in waste and recycling services is causing residents.

Since the strike started on Saturday 27 August, we have prioritised waste collection and cleansing services in Newham’s town centres, main roads and estates, particularly blocks of flats, due to the fire risk.

We thank residents for their understanding during this time and would like to reassure residents that we are doing all we can to minimise the disruption.

Measures put in place to help residents during the disruption

We have put in a place a number of measures to assist residents during this time, including temporary waste drop-off sites.

Thank you to all the residents who have been making use of these sites over the week. These will remain open until Sunday 11 September for residents to take their bagged household rubbish. The sites are:

• Little Ilford Park Service area, Reynolds Avenue E12 6JU
• Shaftesbury Road Car Park, 85 Shaftesbury Road, E7 8PD
• Church Street Car Park in front of shops, 30-46 Church Street, E15 3HU 
• Freemasons Road / Coolfin Road Car Park in front of shops,  78 Coolfin Road, E16 3BE

They are open daily from 7am to 8pm

Jenkins Lane Re-use and Recycling Centre is also available for residents to take their waste to.

Orange recycling bags are available from libraries, which allow residents to store extra recycling at home.

Our busiest recycling banks are also being emptied more often during strike action.

Continuing negotiations to end the dispute

We also want to reassure residents that we have consistently sought to find a positive outcome for this dispute and will continue to take forward negotiations following the conclusion of this current strike action.

We will be seeking further dates through ACAS - the national body that works to resolve workplace disputes – with Unite so that talks can recommence to resolve this dispute.

Newham Council’s offer to Unite

Prior to the current strike action, we made a number of offers which we hope Unite will consider further once the current strike action concludes.

Sick pay
Unite has asked for sick pay to be paid on contractual Saturdays following or preceding bank holidays.

The council agreed to this request before the first talks with ACAS were held on the 19 August.

Overtime rates
Unite has also asked us to consider our overtime rates -  for all staff to be paid at time and a half, except Sundays to be paid at double time.

The council agreed to this request before the first talks with ACAS were held on the 19 August.

A variation of our terms and conditions for overtime to meet this request is now being progressed across the council. Consultation has been underway with all Unions from 16 August. We aim to be in a position to implement this as of January 2023.

The benefits of this to the waste and recycling team are:  

• For 7.25 hours overtime Monday to Saturday, a Driver would get roughly £19 extra in the hand. 
• For 7.25 hours overtime Monday to Saturday, an Operative would get roughly £14 extra in the hand. 

Bank holiday payments
The council has made an offer of £100 per Driver/Operative for the 8 Bank Holiday weeks relating to the completion of rounds on those weeks.

In addition we are retaining a Christmas payment as part of the agreed negotiations to date. This is a £50 flexible payment paid for any of three statutory days worked. As part of the negotiations we offered to increase this to £100 for each of the three days for all of our frontline staff in Public Realm.

This additional £950 equates to increases of salary of 4.3% for operatives and 3.0% for drivers, this is in addition to the national offer and the increased rate for overtime in our council review of terms and conditions

Retention payment of 10%
Unite has also asked for an additional retention payment of 10%.  Unfortunately, we are not able to set pay awards in isolation at Newham as we, like other councils, are bound by the national negotiations which operate in local government to ensure fairness for all staff employees.

The National pay offer is currently a £2,229 increase for all staff across the whole council.

Applied in waste and recycling this equates to 9.7% to 9.9% for operatives and up to 8.4% for drivers.

Whilst the offer is set nationally, it is funded by Newham Council.

Unite have claimed this part of the offer is not paid by the council but paid for by the Government. As it is paid for by the council, we need to take into account the council’s current constrained financial position and consider what is affordable to deliver council services and reach agreement with all recognised unions.

Review of job descriptions
We have agreed to review and evaluate job descriptions for staff in the waste and recycling service.

HGV driver recruitment and retention payment 
This year we made a payment to all waste lorry drivers of a £2,000 recruitment and retention allowance, as there is currently a national shortage of HGV drivers.

The council has offered to extend the drivers recruitment and retention payment for 2023. This payment would be paid to all HGV drivers employed across the council in January 2023. This is £2,000 for drivers equates to a 6.7% increase on the base salary. When taken with the Bank Holiday payments this equates to a total increase of 9.3% of local offers that have been made and this is in addition to the national offer and the increased rate for overtime in our council review of terms and conditions

Summary of offer
The council has offered a number of local pay enhancements in addition to the national negotiated pay award for local government workers. For an operative who is currently on £22,575 per year this would see their pay increase to £25,754 per year, an increase of just over 14%.

For HGV drivers, where this role is particularly hard to recruit for, we are offering an additional £2,000 recruitment and retention allowance. Currently our drivers receive a salary starting at £28,470 - the offer that was presented would see them receive an additional £5,179 for 2023. This equates to an increase of up to at least 18%. This does not take into account the generous increase in overtime rates that we are seeking to put in place.

The council understands that both our residents and our staff are seriously affected by the cost of living crisis and this is having a real impact. We are taking action to help staff, including with the generous offer we have made during this dispute.

In addition, we are already a London Living Wage Employer. It is calculated independently to reflect the high cost of living in the capital.

We have also benchmarked the wages of our Waste and Recycling Teams against other London councils and this has shown our staff are paid competitively.
We have also offered all of our frontline staff the opportunity of a fully funded HGV driving course to increase their earning potential.

We will continue to take forward negotiations with Unite following the conclusion of this current strike action as we always strive to find positive solution’s with our staff.