Strike action by Kirklees bin workers has been confirmed for June 4-10.

Unison members will walk out from midnight for seven days. The union issued formal notice to Kirklees Council this morning.

But there may remain a glimmer of hope – the union and Kirklees Council will meet with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) on Wednesday.

Paul Holmes, Unison branch secretary, said: “We have issued our 14 days notice to Kirklees. That is a legal requirement that was intend to strike.

“We’ve called the strike for June 4-10.

“It will start at midnight so our members will not be working the five weekdays or the weekend.

“We are meeting with ACAS on Wednesday morning.

“The council approached us last week, after we got the ballot result, for talks.

“We have always said we’re prepared to talk but we felt it would be better with ACAS involved.”

Asked if it could avert strike action, Mr Holmes replied: “We need Kirklees to move some considerable way.

“My experience of strikes is that people don’t willingly walk out and lose pay for nothing, workers need assurances that all of this can be sorted in one go.

UNISON Kirklees, Branch Secretary Paul Holmes.

“We go into the talks with an open mind.”

The men and women who collect waste and recycling for Kirklees Council gave a resounding ‘yes’ to walking out - 85.5% of workers voted in favour, based on a turn out of 86.1%.

The strike ballot was prompted by a series of allegations of bullying and harassment by managers towards bin collectors, the inability to take holidays and lieu days and grievances being ignored for six months.

Bins – both the grey waste bin and green recycling bin – will not be collected by Kirklees Unison members during the strike action. Kirklees may have the option to draft in agency workers to cover the rounds but there is expected to be disruption to bin collections.

Kirklees has said that they have launched a review into the allegations and will continue to work with union representatives to make sure that all concerns are addressed.