Bin collectors in Thanet consider strike action
It comes as multiple residents have served Thanet District Council on the issue
More than 50 refuse collectors in Thanet have entered an industrial action ballot over what they claim to be management failures.
The GMB members say they have "had enough of bearing the brunt of the public’s frustrations and councillors’ excuses" over the state of refuse collection in the district.
The indicative industrial action ballot ends on 4 September and, if successful, the next stage could be a full strike ballot.
GMB Representative Frank Macklin told us:
"The new refuse and recycling scheme was brought in at the beginning of April.
"It's been a complete mess because Thanet Council thought it was going to be a breeze, that they wouldn't need any extra resources given the amount of extra recycling and waste that would be arising"
On the issue of public frustration he added:
"There's no doubt about it, when our bins are missed even the sanest and nicest of us, we do tend to show our frustration. It's not something we want in our backyards, down the side of our houses, or indeed, like a lot of properties in Thanet, sitting outside the front of their properties.
"So yes, it's fair to say that GMB members and Thanet employees who are at collections have been bearing the brunt of the public's frustration. These guys and girls are professionals, so they're kind of used to, scrutiny, but at the same time, we've had, councillor after councillor seemingly blaming this whole mess on the fact that there's a lack of drivers, lack of staff, when in reality they need to hold their hands up and say, 'we've messed up here, we should have introduced this long before March, got the public ready for it, we should have had the extra rounds that we've had to create up and running. '
"Something has to change, if the council are not willing to make those changes in order to make the service work, then as far as our members are concerned, they've lost all trust, faith and confidence in them being able to run the service on behalf of the people of Thanet and the employees."
He added that despite the frustration, talks with the council have so far been productive, with plans to introduce inspection from an independent party and more staff to distribute the burden.
It comes as 145 residents have now completed legal notices against Thanet District Council under section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act, using a tool created by Steven Keeley, who initially served the council his own notice a month ago.
A spokesperson for Thanet Council told us:
“Our cleansing workforce helps us to provide an essential service.
“Since the introduction of Simpler Recycling for some residents, issues have arisen with waste and recycling collections. More recently these have been compounded by an HGV driver shortage.
“This has understandably led to frustration from residents and has also meant the crews have experienced a more challenging work environment.
“Our number one priority is getting the waste and recycling service running efficiently, as it should, including hiring additional staff and catching up on collections. Progress has been made in recent weeks in recruiting new drivers to add more resilience to the service.
“We are actively addressing the concerns raised by the workforce and are currently in discussions with cleansing staff and trade unions to reach a resolution.”