Bin men, ground maintenance staff and street cleaners in north Norfolk and Breckland have gone on strike for a week in a dispute over pay.
Around 100 refuse collectors employed by Serco, under contract to North Norfolk and Breckland District Councils, started a week-long walk-out on Monday (March 13).
Unison the union said its members in both local authority areas would down tools until Friday, March 17, unless Serco returned to the negotiating table.
A picket line in Aylsham saw more than 30 workers gather at the junction of the A140 and Dunkirk Road.
Some held placards demanding ‘Fair pay for taking your rubbish away’ and others declared ‘It’s time to stop paying us rubbish’.
Terry Money, 60, who lives in Northrepps and cleans public toilets in Holt, Fakenham, Wells and Walsingham, said: “We just want to be on a driver’s wage because we do a lot of driving.
"I can do 150 miles a day at this time of year.”
Mr Money said he is currently paid the minimum wage of £9.52 an hour.
“With cleaning we’re out in all weathers, cleaning the streets, emptying litter bins and cleaning toilets inside and out.
“It’s a hard job. All we’re asking for is what other companies are paying,” he said.
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Trevor Wray, 40, who lives in Dereham and is a bin lorry loader in the Watton area, said the picket was “very successful”.
“There was a good response from the public. We had lots of people beeping their horns.”
Mr Wray said that working during the pandemic “has been a struggle”.
“We deserve fair pay for what we do,” he added.
Serco has said they have made an above-inflation pay offer and apologised to residents for disruption to services.
Bin lorries will continue go out this week across the two districts, but with smaller crews, likely leading to delays in collections.
Cameron Matthews, Unison Eastern regional organiser, has urged council leaders in both districts to join the pay negotiations.
He said: “It’s a real shame that Serco can’t dip into its incredibly deep pockets to pay its workers in Breckland and North Norfolk a fair wage.
“Unfortunately, Serco seems willing to hit both workers and residents in their hard-headed desire to keep wages down.
“We urge the firm to come back around the negotiating table with a new, fair deal so we can avoid these strikes,” he said.
Councillor Helen Crane, Breckland Council’s executive member for waste, said they were working with Serco to implement a contingency plan.
She said: “This includes drafting in temporary staff from other Serco services to cover gaps and as a result we currently expect our services to operate largely as normal, however I’d like to apologise to our residents for any service disruption they may experience over the next few days.”
Serco manages waste collection in north Norfolk and Breckland, as well as King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.
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Last November, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk settled a pay dispute with Serco.
Peter Aylward, regional director for Serco Environmental Services, said “We are pleased that GMB members in North Norfolk have now accepted our above inflation pay offer, which will be backdated to April 22.
“Unison members at Breckland, who have been presented the same offer, have disappointedly rejected it, and Unison has notified us that their members at North Norfolk will also be taking industrial action.”
He said they are asking their employees to reconsider “what is a very good offer” and call off the strike.
“We would like to apologise to any residents who may be affected by the strike action and reassure them that we are doing all we can to minimise any disruption.
“Should any collections be disrupted we will provide residents with further updates about their collections,” Mr Aylward added.
In recent months, Serco has come under fire for missing thousands of bin collections in north Norfolk since its routes changed on September 5.
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