Workers employed at five household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in Sheffield are to go on ‘all-out indefinite strike action’ from 22 December, following a failure by their employer, SOVA Recycling, to implement an agreement reached in October to give workers more hours.
Workers, represented by the union GMB, have been on rolling strikes since May, when Sheffield City Council revealed changes to opening times in an effort to save £500,000 of its budget, a move attributed to government cuts. This saw employees suffer reduced working hours and staff cuts, a problem which SOVA – a charity subcontracted by Veolia to handle Sheffield’s HWRCs – has failed to rectify according to the union.
GMB Regional officer, Peter Davies, said: “GMB agreed through ACAS in early October to settle the HWRC dispute in Sheffield because SOVA had secured more work from Veolia; this mitigated our winter reduction in hours which was the main issue of dispute. The new work was to involve the recycling of bulky waste.
“The new winter hours were to start at the end of October. The council, Veolia and SOVA delayed this until November due to a delay in the method statements, but it soon became clear that we wouldn't even get the hours this year. We met with SOVA on Monday and they could not confirm an implementation date.”
Speaking to the BBC, a spokesman for SOVA claimed that the delay is a result of having to wait for a new licence from the Environment Agency (EA).
However, the strikers’ grievances are not purely financial, with workers complaining that there has been a lack of improvement to working conditions since the strike action first began.
“On top of this we have seen little or no improvements in welfare facilities (inadequate wash-off facilities and no wash-off time) and there is a requirement to remain behind after hours if members of the public are on site with no guarantee of payment”, Davies added.
Read about previous strike action.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
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