Birmingham has attracted national media coverage as an example of one of the many Councils which have had problems collecting rubbish in the past few weeks. For many Councils, there have been difficulties caused by the snow which effectively blocked many side roads for the large lorries used to collect rubbish. The snow problem then combined with the normal Christmas peak period, when volumes of rubbish rise by around 30%.

In Birmingham the problems have been made worse by an industrial dispute between the Council and the binmen. The problem here (to cut a long and complicated story short) is that the bin men (and the use of the word men is key) have been paid more than women assessed as doing comparable jobs. Under recent legislation this is now illegal, and because the Council cannot afford to increase the pay of all the women being paid less than the bin men, the bin men have had to take a pay cut. Not suprisingly the bin men don’t like this. It may be fair, and necessary due to the law, but no-one likes a pay cut. And so the bin men are in dispute with the Council. It is somewhat ironic that their union is organising a strike, which is triggered by action taken to equalise pay between men and women, following legislation brought in by the last Labour Government, due in no small part to pressure from the Unions – but that is what is happening.  

The Council has taken on extra agency staff to try to catch up delays, but the combination of snow, Christmas and industrial action has proved too much over the holiday period. We have been promised that the backlog will be dealt with by the end of this weekend and residents and their councillors right across the City will be holding the Council to that promise.