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Rubbish bags piled up in front of bins in Moseley Road, Birmingham
The dispute led to bags of rubbish being piled up on the streets of Birmingham. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA
The dispute led to bags of rubbish being piled up on the streets of Birmingham. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Birmingham refuse collectors win high court case against city council

This article is more than 6 years old

Judge rules in favour of Unite union against city council’s redundancy plans, arguing it acted unlawfully

Birmingham’s long-running bin strike has been suspended following a high court injunction preventing the city council from making refuse workers redundant.

After a two-day hearing in the high court, Mr Justice Fraser ruled in favour of the Unite union, granting them permission to bring forward a case against the council. The union argues that the council acted unlawfully in issuing 113 redundancy notices.

The court granted an interim injunction against the redundancies and the union agreed to suspend the strike until the case is heard in November. The redundancies were due to be enacted on 4 October.

Refuse workers in the UK’s second biggest city have been on strike since 30 June over the city councils plans to restructure refuse services, saving £5m, after they ran £11.9m over budget last year. The union says that more than 120 jobs are at risk under the proposals and that low-paid workers could lose up to £5,000 a year.

Earlier this week, refuse workers voted overwhelmingly to extend the strike action by 12 weeks, stopping work for three hours a day. Unite announced its members would return to working a full day following the high court ruling on Wednesday.

The high court case centres on an apparent deal struck by the leader of the council, John Clancy, and the union on 16 August, following nearly two months of the strike during which rubbish has piled up in the city’s streets.

The union issued a statement saying that the council had agreed to restore the “grade 3 jobs” which were previously under threat, which are responsible for the safety at the rear of the refuse vehicles. A spokeswoman for Acas, the government arbitration service, said there were no redundancy steps in place.

However, Clancy was forced to step down after the council’s interim chief executive, Stella Manzie, warned that it could not afford the agreement and that it opened up the council to equal pay claims.

Following a vote by Birmingham city council earlier this month, the local authority issued redundancy notices to the affected workers.

Referring to the dispute between Clancy and Manzie, Fraser said: “Neither party comes out of this sorry saga with any credit at all – I could use the words remarkable, extraordinary and more.”

Commenting on the high court’s decision, the Unite assistant general secretary, Howard Beckett, said: “This judgment will be a huge relief to Birmingham’s bin workers, who in just a matter of weeks were facing losing their job or pay cuts of up to £5,000 a year.

“As part of the ruling, Unite will suspend its industrial action until the matter is put before a full court hearing at a later date. The high court ruling leaves Birmingham council’s unfair and unjust plans in tatters. The council needs to reflect on how it got here and the misery it has inflicted on the people of Birmingham and its own bin workers.”

Beckett called on Manzie to follow Clancy in stepping down. “She has repeatedly used the threat of equal pay cases to frighten and bully the council into agreeing the downgrade of long-serving bin workers when it has no substance whatsoever and was not so much as mentioned by her legal team,” he said.

A Birmingham city council spokesperson said: “The council wants to offer the best possible refuse service for citizens and wants to work with Unite and all the other unions to do this. We remain committed to resolving the dispute as quickly as possible and we hope Unite will support us in doing this.”

More on this story

More on this story

  • Birmingham bin strike could extend into next year

  • Birmingham council leader quits over handling of bin strike

  • Birmingham seven-week bin strike comes to an end

  • You can slash the social care budget, but don’t mess with Britain’s bins

  • Birmingham residents start collecting their own rubbish

  • Birmingham refuse workers hate to see rubbish piling up – but our strike is vital

  • Rubbish piles up in Birmingham as strike continues

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