Government commissioners have been accused of “sabotaging” negotiations to end the long-running bin strike in Birmingham.
According to the Unite union, the city council has missed three deadlines to submit a revised pay offer for workers since talks began on 1 May.
Officials claim it has become “increasingly clear” that government commissioners and the council’s leader have blocked the offer from being made.
And while the government argues a “fair and reasonable offer” has already been made to refuse workers, Unite alleges this does not exist.
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General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite deals with thousands of negotiations every year. From the council side, the negotiations in this dispute have been a shambles, with the government right at the heart of it.”
She claimed the leader of Birmingham City Council “should stop playing games, get in the room and solve this dispute” – adding: “Bin workers, residents and the public at large have all been lied to.
“The bottom line is that our members can’t afford to have savage pay cuts of up to £8,000 with no mitigation. Until that issue is addressed the strikes will continue.”
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Commissioners were brought in by the Conservative government after Birmingham City Council effectively declared itself bankrupt in September 2023.
Unite’s members have been on all-out strike for more than two months in a row over pay and jobs, with rubbish piling up on the city’s streets.
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A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “It is simply false to suggest the commissioners or the leader of the council have blocked attempts to resolve this deal, and we continue to urge Unite to suspend its strike action and both parties to reach agreement on a fair and reasonable offer.”
Meanwhile, a Birmingham City Council spokesperson said it is “fully committed” to ending the dispute – and it is “untrue” to imply its leader is blocking the process.
“Our focus has been to find a solution to this that does not put the council in a position that compromises us financially and legally,” they added. “This is a service that needs to be transformed to one that citizens of Birmingham deserve.”
ACAS, which is overseeing the talks between both sides, did not respond to a request for comment.
