Over 200 workers employed by waste management company Biffa on Manchester council’s outsourced refuse collection service considering strike action in a dispute over low pay.
Biffa, which logged £26 million in pre-tax profits last year, is a private company so not bound by the local government pay restraint policy. However, Biffa is refusing to pay above the 1.75 per cent for local government pay in 2021, leaving many of its workers with an hourly wage just 64 pence above the legal minimum wage says the Unite union.
With the real cost of living now running at 8.2 percent (RPI) and prices rising at the highest rate in generations, Unite is pressing for a rise that will help address spiralling costs.
The workers are employed as drivers, loaders and environmental operatives. A vote in favour of industrial action will see strikes begin later this spring.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“Biffa has to get real. It can easily afford to offer our members a decent pay rise but instead is proposing an insulting pay cut. Biffa must think again and put hard-pressed workers before boardroom greed.
“Our members at Biffa will be receiving Unite’s full support until this dispute is resolved and a fair offer is made to the workers.”
The ballot will open on Tuesday 29 March and closes on Tuesday 12 April.
Biffa is proposing to pay loaders and environmental operatives just £10.14 an hour, which is only 64 pence above the new minimum wage rates. The proposed rate of £13.00 an hour for drivers, who are required to hold a HGV licence, is far below standard commercial rates.
