Exclusive – the offers and counter offers between Unite and Birmingham City Council
19:00, 16 Jul 2025Updated 19:16, 16 Jul 2025
Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham (inset), says offer of council for striking bin workers not enough
Birmingham City Council offered to compensate bin workers facing pay cuts and job losses with payments of up to £10,000 to settle the dispute, Unite’s leader has revealed.
The offer was made in writing to the union last month but was snubbed, claimed Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.
It didn’t come close to compensating the workers, she said. Workers were not balloted over the offer.
The union had been asking for sums in the region of £20,000 each for affected drivers, who were offered £10,000, and £14,000 for the former waste, recycling and collection officers, who were offered £7,000. The payments would be part of a settlement package which also included a choice of voluntary redundancy or redeployment.
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The sums would be mitigation payments and, as a result, would not trigger new equal pay problems, according to the union. This is strongly disputed by the council.
Wrapped up in the deal would be assurances that those affected could not in future bring constructive dismissal or unfair dismissal claims, which otherwise remained a real threat, added Graham.
She is now pressing for the Government to intervene, saying the city otherwise faced months more disruption.
She spoke out on the day that the council had said it intended to launch a 45 day collective consultation with union representatives about its plans to restructure and potentially downgrade the role of driver team leaders on the trucks.
The 127 staff affected have been told they face a likely demotion to a lower grade and a pay cut of £4,000 to £8,000.
The details of the council offer were revealed by the Unite chief in an explosive interview today, Wednesday, July 16.
Speaking to BirminghamLive, she poured scorn on the council’s offer, which she said failed to compensate staff who faced a big drop in pay and a loss of job security, and in some cases their jobs.
She said the proposed changes facing drivers would equate to around a quarter of their pay.
Graham said: “I cannot stress enough what is at stake here, these are ordinary working people who are being made to pay for the council’s failings, its debts and its desire to cut the wage bill. It is fire and rehire in any other name.”
She claimed the council’s negotiating tactics showed ‘incompetence’ to a level she found ‘breathtaking’.
Unite the Union general secretary, Sharon Graham(Image: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
And she accused the council of riding roughshod over workers’ rights and blaming bin workers for the mistakes and failings of senior leaders over several years.
Graham also sounded a warning that other council workers would be in the firing line next as the council sought to reduce its wage bill.
The union head, in the city to attend a meeting of Unite’s regional committee, was on the picket lines earlier today at three Birmingham bin depots meeting striking bin workers who she said were in good spirits and determined to fight on.
But she claimed it was clear that part-time commissioners, overseen by the Government, were ‘running the negotiations’ without being in the room, while the council’s managing director Joanne Roney had no decision making powers. Council leader John Cotton had ‘abdicated responsibility’, she alleged.
Discussions between the council and the union broke down last week after Coun Cotton announced there was nowhere else for the council to go as the offer tabled by the authority could not be improved. At the time he refused to outline the offer made but said it was ‘fair and reasonable’.
The council declared it could not improve its offer without risking new equal pay liabilities and said the union was making demands it could not meet.
Unite delegates at the union’s policy conference gave a massive thumbs down to Birmingham’s Labour council and the Government
Coun Cotton said at the time: “Throughout this process the council has sought to be reasonable and flexible, but we have reached the absolute limit of what we can offer. It is well-known the council has an equal pay risk, we have been negotiating since before Christmas, but have now run out of time.”
Graham said there had not been a succession of offers, as the council had claimed.
The council had wanted to give the impression it was working night and day to settle the damaging strike. “But they barely turned up for discussions. They showed no urgency to reach a negotiated settlement,” she claimed.
“My job as a negotiator has involved thousands of agreements and deals and it was really clear from the beginning that they were out of their depth and didn’t really understand what was before them.
“I am pretty certain these people have never negotiated anything. I have been in Acas meetings into the early hours, at weekends, and these people didn’t want to be in the room.
“They were showing no urgency to strike a deal – almost the opposite.”
READ MORE: Birmingham bin collections hit again as striking bin workers cause more disruption
She went on: “We sought a way to move forward. Unite all along has been clear about what we want, how we can achieve it and how it could be legally framed to protect the council from future risks.”
At Unite’s policy conference last week, 800 delegates from across the country voted to suspend the union membership of Birmingham Labour councillors, including Coun Cotton, and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, because of their handling of the strike.
They also voted to review the strong affiliation and financial links between the union and the Labour party because of its role in the alleged mistreatment of the bins workers. This would need to be agreed at a future full conference of Unite, but members were angry, said Graham.
Discussions over the fate of the mostly male workforce who make up the city’s bin crews, collecting rubbish and recycling from the roadside, have been ongoing since last year.
Strike action started in January but escalated to an all-out strike in March. At its worst point streets across the city were full of uncollected rubbish and piles of flytipping, with reports of rats running wild.
The council has since adopted a contingency plan to ensure residents’ rubbish is collected, though it has yet to restart recycling and green waste collections.
On claims of fire and rehire, the council said: “The Government have been very clear on fire and rehire, introducing some of the toughest restrictions in the world, and the council leader supports their stance.
“Unite rejected the council’s fair and reasonable offer and voluntary redundancy remains on the table, as do opportunities for training and redeployment across the council.”