{"id":615935,"date":"2025-12-06T12:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T12:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/615935\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T12:43:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T12:43:19","slug":"council-hires-new-birmingham-bin-workers-in-response-to-agency-staff-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/615935\/","title":{"rendered":"Council ‘hires new Birmingham bin workers in response to agency staff strike’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The union representing striking workers claims the council is recruiting new staff ‘to replace striking agency workers’Job & Talent agency bin workers jointed the strike on December 1 and marched to Birmingham City Council House(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Birmingham City Council is hiring new agency workers to clean the city’s streets amid ongoing industrial action, Unite has claimed.<\/p>\n

The union, representing striking bin workers, claims the authority is recruiting new staff to “replace striking agency workers” who joined the picket line earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Online job adverts, seen by BirminghamLive, show a number of roles being advertised, including for a ‘HGV Class 2 refuse driver’ position with recruitment firm Smarter Solutions.<\/p>\n

According to the ad, successful candidates will “work alongside outdoor clean-up team members” and will be responsible for clearing “leaves, litter and debris” from public areas including streets and parks.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Defiant Birmingham Council tells bin strike union ‘change is coming’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It comes after agency binmen, employed by Job & Talent recruitment firm, joined the picket line on Monday, December 1, over alleged bullying and threats of blacklisting.<\/p>\n

As a result, no household waste collections were said to have taken place across the city that day.<\/p>\n

\"AA job vacancy online<\/p>\n

Unite, the union representing striking refuse collectors, said this morning it does not accept the council’s position that it’s not unlawfully using temporary staff to replace those currently on strike.<\/p>\n

The union claimed new agency workers had already been drafted in through Smart Solutions at the authority’s Smithfield depot.<\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Instead of trying to break a strike, the council should stop disgracing itself and get back to talks to find a fair resolution for the bin workers.<\/p>\n

“That is the only way strikes will end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directly employed refuse collectors have been in dispute since January over said pay reductions of up to \u00a38,000 for drivers and loaders.<\/p>\n

Birmingham City Council’s <\/a>bins chief, Coun Majid Mahmood, said this week he was ‘struggling to understand’ why the strike was continuing.<\/p>\n

He told BirminghamLive<\/a>: “Every worker that’s been impacted so far has been resolved.<\/p>\n

“Most of the former driver team leaders have accepted their roles as drivers. There were three compulsory redundancies issued.<\/p>\n

“Some have taken voluntary redundancies, some changed their role. So everyone has accepted a new role or taken other action. I’m struggling to understand why they (Unite members) are still out on strike.”<\/p>\n

We have contacted Birmingham City Council<\/a> and Smarter Solutions for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The union representing striking workers claims the council is recruiting new staff ‘to replace striking agency workers’Job &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,7831,984,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-615935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-bin-strike","10":"tag-birmingham-city-council","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115672686324783599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}