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Rayner holds talks in Birmingham over bin strike

Hollie Cole
BBC News
EPA Rubbish piles up on a street in Birmingham. There are discarded cardboard boxes, black bin bags, and white bin bags next to red bins.EPA
Rubbish has been piling up on Birmingham's streets during an ongoing bin strike

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner met Birmingham council leaders on Saturday to discuss ways to clear the "waste backlog" that has piled up during an ongoing bin strike.

Birmingham City Council declared a major incident last week amid industrial action by Unite union members over pay, which has led to uncollected rubbish bags being stacked up on the city's streets.

Ahead of the meeting, the local government department said Rayner would be briefed on clean-up plans and talks to end the dispute.

It comes after, on Friday, Unite accused the government of "blaming bin workers in a dispute not of their making" and said its members were "being made to pay the price for austerity".

Talks between the council and Unite broke down last week without an agreement to end the strike, which began on 11 March.

There have been rising concerns of risks to public health from the tonnes of uncollected waste, including from rats attracted by stacks of bin bags on residential streets.

EPA Piles of rubbish on a street in Birmingham, much of which is in black bin bags.EPA

The government said it had "deployed logistic experts to the city" to help plot clean-up operations.

Local government minister Jim McMahon, who was due to attend the Saturday meeting with Rayner, said they would "press all parties involved to get around the table and come to a resolution".

On Friday, Downing Street said Unite "need to focus on negotiating in good faith".

In response, Unite's leader Sharon Graham said: "It is not surprising that many workers in Britain question the Labour government's commitment to working people, when it issues a statement clearly blaming bin workers in a dispute not of their making."

Watch: Birmingham residents queue during the bin strike to unload rubbish

Unite members have been on all-out strike since 11 March.

The dispute centres on the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles - a job that Unite said had brought safety and expertise to an "often dirty and dangerous job".

The union said 170 affected workers faced an average pay cut of £8,000, and that it was also concerned the council was preparing to downgrade the pay of other non-management roles in the service.

Birmingham City Council disputes Unite's figures and say reopening the waste roles would leave the local authority open to an equal pay liability.