Bin collection workers in Wirral have announced 15 more days of strike action - resulting in mass cancellations in the busy period following Christmas and New Year.
More than 200 Biffa employees on the outsourced Wirral Council contract will escalate strike action at the end of the month after their calls for a 15% pay increase were not met by the waste management company.
The announcement follows five days of strikes from December 5 to December 10, which resulted in the cancellation of household and public bin collections and street clean-ups.
READ MORE: Biffa workers walk out over pay with no bin collections for a week
Workers will strike from Wednesday, December 28 to Saturday, December 31, January 3 to January 7, and January 16 to January 21 2023.
Unite the Union general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Biffa is a highly wealthy company and can fully afford to offer its workers a decent pay rise. It is greed not need which is preventing it from doing so.
“Biffa and Wirral council need to stop prevaricating and make a fair pay offer that meets our members’ expectations.”
The union said the strikes will "put additional strain on refuse and recycling services across Merseyside" as they "make a stand to end low pay rates".
These include HGV drivers being paid just £11.95 an hour, refuse operatives on £11.50 and street operatives on only £10.76.
Unite regional officer John McColl said: “The escalation of the dispute will lead to further disruption of refuse collections across the Wirral but this dispute is a direct result of Biffa’s stubborn refusal to pay its workers fairly.”
A Wirral Council spokesman said: "The council has been notified that there is set to be further industrial action by Biffa staff in the coming weeks.
"We are still working through the precise details of the potential impact on these actions, but we already know that if they go ahead as advised, there are two pieces of information we have previously issued that will now be contradicted.
"Firstly, residents whose regular collection day would fall on Boxing Day were due to have an earlier collection on Christmas Eve, this will now not take place as we had previously stated. Biffa staff will not be working on Christmas Eve.
"Due to the planned industrial action by Biffa from December 28 to 30 and January 3 to 6 2023 it will also not be possible for this missed collection to be done at a later date.
"Secondly, we had told residents who subscribe to the garden waste collection service and whose brown bin collection was missed during the week of industrial action by Biffa staff that there would be a collection scheduled for between January 3 and 6. Due to the planned further action by Biffa staff, this will not now take place unless there is a resolution to the dispute in the meantime.
"To that end, we understand negotiations are continuing between union representatives and Biffa management today and into next week. Council officers are also in regular dialogue with Biffa management in an effort to speed up a possible resolution to this industrial action."
Biffa was approached for comment.
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