Why your bins will not be emptied this week as Highland Council confirms waste, street cleaning and recycling staff will strike after last minute pay offer arrives too late for GMB and Unite unions to put to members

Highland Council has confirmed that waste, street cleaning and recycling staff will start going on strike from Wednesday despite a late offer on a pay deal.

A special meeting of council leaders on Friday saw an improved pay offer but unions said it was too late to ballot staff and slammed the timing.

They were offered a deal worth a five per cent pay increase, up from 3.5 per cent, and the Scottish Local Government Living Wage was also raised to £10.50 per hour.

Unless the council is notified of any suspension of the strike action arising from the revised pay offer, which is unlikely given the scheduled strikes dates start from tomorrow and union members would likely have to vote on them then there is likely to be significant disruption.

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What will happen?

Both Unite and the GMB will walkout on different dates though some days overlap

Unite members will come out for eight days from 05:00 on Wednesday August 24 until 04:59 on Thursday on September 1.

GMB members will also strike for eight days from Friday 26 August from 00:00 until Monday 29 August at 23:59 and then again from Wednesday 7 September from 00:00 until Saturday 10 September at 23:59.

Why are some council staff striking?

GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Keir Greenaway explained what is behind the strike earlier this month, stating: "debt, fuel poverty, and hunger."

He said: “Both parties are squabbling while more of our members struggle with debt, fuel poverty, and hunger, exposing a huge gulf between politics and frontline workers.

"This is only increasing anger and fear among our members – anger over the lack of value shown to them and fear about what winter will bring in this cost-of-living crisis."

He added: “Make no mistake, these strikes are a direct response from our extraordinary key workers to months of political failure. They are not prepared to accept working poverty as an inevitability even if Scotland’s political leaders are.”

What does that mean for you?

The only service staff in the region coming out on strike are those working in bin collections, street cleaning and recycling centres but much depends on how many members work in each particular area on how much service will be affected.

It is very likely that there may not be enough staff to drive and collect bins so those households due to have their bins picked on the above strike dates will be affected by the walkout.

There is likely to be a visible impact on urban streets in particular so you can expect to see bins overflowing and greater than normal litter particularly around the strike days.

Those wishing to dispose of items accepted at recycling centres may need to hold on to them until they fully reopen, which could potentially spark a rise in fly-tipping as people seek alternatives.

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