{"id":179544,"date":"2023-08-04T09:38:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T09:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=179544"},"modified":"2023-08-04T09:38:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T09:38:24","slug":"binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/","title":{"rendered":"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Binmen fighting for \u00a3760million equal pay deal are STILL knocking off early on full pay under emergency Covid measures council bosses are &#8216;too fearful&#8217; to stop<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Critics say this way of working could lead to shortcuts and missed collections<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Council bosses have allowed Birmingham bin workers &#8211; who are currently fighting for equal pay &#8211; to knock off early for the past three years.<\/p>\n<p>An arrangement known as &#8216;task and finish&#8217; encouraged crews to go home early if their rounds were completed before the end of their 7 hours and 15 minutes shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Critics say this is not an acceptable way of working in a dangerous council environment, with the risk of shortcuts and missed collections.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The measure was introduced as an emergency during the pandemic to help prevent workers from contracting Covid-19, but has continued until l<span>ast week when workers were told the practice must stop.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Labour-run Birmingham City Council is currently facing a \u00a3760million equal pay bill, which the bin workers are part of.\u00a0Council workers are demanding to be paid the same as their colleagues who are doing work of equal value.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/04\/09\/73957483-12372411-image-a-12_1691138119268.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>An arrangement known as &#8216;task and finish&#8217; encouraged Birmingham City Council bin workers to go home early if their rounds were completed. [File Photo]<\/p>\n<p>The council has a dire financial crisis to solve as a result of the equal pay bill, with every service now at risk of cuts.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Equal Pay?<\/h3>\n<p>According to UNISON, Equal pay is your entitlement to the same wage as someone doing work of equal value to you, the same or broadly similar work as you or work rated as &#8216;of equivalent value&#8217; by a job evaluation study.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Any work arrangements that result in some workers getting a higher rate of pay per hour than others doing a comparable grade job is potentially discriminatory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>An insider said the council was &#8216;fearful of rocking the boat&#8217; by ending the practice, especially in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games which were held in Birmingham.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Bin men have not been sneaking off home early or doing anything wrong &#8211; this is a council approved working practice,&#8217; one union source told Birmingham Live.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Waste service workers, union officials and city council insiders say the practice continued beyond the pandemic as a way to incentivise the mostly male workforce in the bins service.\u00a0It is understood the parks maintenance service has also been working to a similar regime. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Birmingham Conservatives group leader Cllr Robert Alden said it was an appalling state of affairs.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8216;Covid emergency powers ended over a year ago &#8211; to have failed to end this then is unbelievable.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Referring to the equal pay bill facing the council, he said there were &#8216;millions&#8217; of reasons why it needed to be sorted out long ago.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This amounts to gross negligence and the idea that councillors were unaware it was common practice does not bear scrutiny,&#8217; said Cllr Alden.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/04\/09\/73957481-12372411-image-a-13_1691138168827.jpg\" height=\"899\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Birmingham Conservatives group leader councillor Robert Alden (pictured) has described the situation as &#8216;an appalling state of affairs&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Council leader John Cotton has denied knowing the practice was happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>READ MORE:\u00a0Labour-run Birmingham City Council is under fire after \u00a311M probe over eye-watering payments made to taxi firm \u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>Not all workers and not all managers have approved of or carried out the early finish practice, according to one binman.<\/p>\n<p>Another bin worker said: &#8216;I don&#8217;t think people will see a problem here. We have a round to complete &#8211; if we work fast and get it finished sooner, rather than take our time to fill the hours, what does it matter as long as the rubbish is collected?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Some workers headed off to second jobs, carried out caring duties or relaxed after speeding through their work, a bin worker revealed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another claimed that some managers were also abusing the &#8216;lax&#8217; oversight of working practices in the service.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leader Cllr Cotton has claimed he was told by officers that the practice was not happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When asked if this meant he was lied to, he said: &#8216;This is one of those questions that needs to be properly explored by the governance review and review of equal pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Residents are entitled to answers.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/04\/09\/73957685-12372411-image-a-15_1691138754474.jpg\" height=\"405\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Commonwealth Games were held in Birmingham last year, an insider says council bosses were &#8216;too fearful&#8217; to drop the emergency measure which bin workers loved due to the big event<\/p>\n<p>One Labour councillor, on condition of anonymity, defended the practice, saying bin workers who left early &#8216;were carrying out work tasks at home&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When asked what these tasks typically included for a bin loader or driver, they said it included health and safety training and other online learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cllr Alden said that explanation had never been given to opposition members before and he found it &#8216;incredulous&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One binman said some crews turn up early to get out on the roads of Birmingham before agreed start times, causing noise disruption to residents living nearby and on the routes.<\/p>\n<p>An internal report leaked last year into the bins service found that Birmingham&#8217;s bins service was letting down residents, with &#8216;unreliable&#8217; crews regularly missing out whole streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A failure to &#8216;log complaints and missed collections properly, poor recycling and workplace discipline issues also meant residents are &#8216;losing faith&#8217; with the service, the report stated.<\/p>\n<p>A judge led inquiry into equal pay issues will investigate how Birmingham City Council allowed potentially discriminatory pay practices to persist, despite huge warnings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/04\/09\/73957637-12372411-image-a-14_1691138531858.jpg\" height=\"399\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Not all workers and not all managers have approved of or carried out the early finish practice, according to one binman. [File Photo]<\/p>\n<p>A separate governance review about how the council&#8217;s financial woes have arisen is also under way.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, a Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: &#8216;The council has been open about the current potential equal pay liability that the organisation faces, and as there is ongoing litigation relating to this issue we cannot comment further at this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We are working to resolve our historic equal pay liabilities and undertake a job evaluation scheme that ensures that the council faces no further liabilities in the future.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cllr Cotton said: &#8216;There must ultimately be accountability, and the judge-led inquiry that we have commissioned will provide the answers that we need on these issues.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for the GMB union, currently locked in discussions with the city council on equal pay claims for 2,500 staff, said there remained multiple concerns about discriminatory pay practices allowed to persist and they urged the council to settle these quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12372411\/Binmen-fighting-760million-equal-pay-deal-knocking-early-pay-emergency-Covid-measures-council-bosses-fearful-stop.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Binmen fighting for \u00a3760million equal pay deal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures - Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Binmen fighting for \u00a3760million equal pay deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-04T09:38:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-Covid-measures.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/\",\"name\":\"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures - Pre Coin News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-04T09:38:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-04T09:38:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"World News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/category\/world-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/\",\"name\":\"Pre Coin News\",\"description\":\"precoinnews.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a\",\"name\":\"mediabest\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5f13cb3b94fc348d515c0951f6ca073?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5f13cb3b94fc348d515c0951f6ca073?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mediabest\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures - Pre Coin News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures - Pre Coin News","og_description":"Binmen fighting for \u00a3760million equal pay deal","og_url":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/","og_site_name":"Pre Coin News","article_published_time":"2023-08-04T09:38:24+00:00","author":"mediabest","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-Covid-measures.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mediabest","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/","url":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/","name":"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures - Pre Coin News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-08-04T09:38:24+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-04T09:38:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/binmen-are-still-knocking-off-early-under-emergency-covid-measures\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"World News","item":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/category\/world-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Binmen are still knocking off early under emergency Covid measures"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/","name":"Pre Coin News","description":"precoinnews.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a","name":"mediabest","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5f13cb3b94fc348d515c0951f6ca073?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f5f13cb3b94fc348d515c0951f6ca073?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mediabest"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}