South Yorkshire binmen vote for 'indefinite' stoppage

SITA UK employees, who are members of Unite union, will walk out this Friday in a protest that will affect residents in Mexborough, Denaby, Sprotbrough and Warmsworth.

More than 100 workers, including those at the Denaby depot, had already begun a series of six-day strikes, over a three week period, after SITA rejected their request for a pay increase of £1 an hour.

Now, they will strike continuously after SITA failed to improve on their original offer of a 1.7 per cent increase.

Gill Gillies, Doncaster Council’s assistant director of environment, said: “Obviously this is going to have an impact on our bin collections.

“We will continue to work closely with SITA to put plans in place to manage essential waste collections while strike action is taking place.”

Chris Weldon, Unite regional officer, said that they had “no option” but to strike after SITA failed to make them a “fair pay deal” that would bring them in line with colleagues in other counties.

He added: “The company continues to refuse to engage properly with Unite, leaving our members with no other option than to take industrial action.

“There is no doubt that SITA can afford to meet the reasonable demands. We are ready and willing to return to the negotiating table at a moment’s notice, but we believe that SITA has caused this dispute.”

Residents due to have their black bins emptied on Wednesday or Thursday are being advised to put their bin out as normal.

Mrs Gillies added: “There should also be no disruption to clinical or business waste services this week.

“SITA will be making every effort to catch up by the end of tomorrow on collections which have been delayed so far.”

For more information visit www.doncaster.gov.uk/recycle or contact 01302 736000.

Pic: A SITA bin wagon in action