Kirklees Council has hit back at bin workers who agreed to walk out on strike indefinitely this morning, saying it is 'extremely disappointed'.
Karl Battersby, Strategic Director for Economy and Infrastructure at the council, said the action was not 'reasonable, fair or proportionate' following the vote, by members of Unison.
He said: "We are extremely disappointed with this course of action given that we are working well with the Regional Joint Secretaries to address all of their concerns, and action all 16 recommendations agreed with them.
"The agreement gives the Council until the end of September to complete all 16 recommendations, so we are at a loss to understand why action would be announced now.
"A reasonable position would have been to review the situation at the end of the agreed period, and indeed we already had a meeting scheduled at the convenience of the Unison branch secretary between the council, the joint secretaries and the branch so that we could jointly review progress and agree next steps.
"An update on all 16 actions was provided to the branch secretary before this morning’s meeting to ensure that the Unison members who did attend had an up to date position so they could make an informed view.
"We believe that the action the branch has taken is not reasonable, fair or proportionate, and we are still unclear as to what remaining issues would warrant such extreme action and disruption to our residents and businesses.
"Regardless of this distraction, we will continue to work with the regional joint secretaries to deliver all our agreed actions and keep our side of the agreement, as we have done throughout.
"We would urge the branch to act reasonably, and reconsider, as the people who will suffer most with any strike action will be residents and businesses who quite properly expect the service to be delivered."
Mr Battersby responded individually to the issues members were balloted on.
Inability to take leave
"No leave requests have been refused since the agreement was reached, and all those who wished to sell a portion of their accrued leave have done so and were paid on September 5.
"Up to 30 agency staff were made available to cover leave and enable staff to take their leave, in particular over the summer months. Individual conversations are being held with staff to ensure that any remaining backlog of leave is used by 2020.
"Three additional rounds have been put in place whilst a review of the rounds is being undertaken, and crews are now completing their rounds and finishing early.
Bullying and harassment
The independent investigation has concluded, and a number of matters have been resolved, with further investigations ongoing with several individuals, as recommended by the report. We have received no further reports of any issues.
