Birmingham agency bin staff to strike over bullying

17 November 2025

Aida FofanaWest Midlands

News image — Throughout the year there have been times when uncollected rubbish has piled up, like here in the Sparkhill area, in May

PA Media A large pile of black bin bags on the side of a residential street in Birmingham. A pedestrian is walking past the bags, and there are various vehicles parked on both sides of the road. — Throughout the year there have been times when uncollected rubbish has piled up, like here in the Sparkhill area, in May

Agency staff who had continued working during Birmingham's long-running bin strike have voted to take industrial action themselves over claims of bullying and harassment.

Hundreds of members of Unite in Birmingham have been on all-out strike since March in a dispute over pay and jobs.

Now, Unite claims a growing number of agency staff are refusing to cross the picket lines of the striking workers because of "unsustainable workloads" and a "bullying" workplace culture.

Unite confirmed 18 out of 22 agency staff who are members had voted to join official picket lines from 1 December. Birmingham City Council denied the union's claims about the department.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "This is a real escalation in the dispute with agency workers now joining picket lines due to the terrible way they have been treated by Job&Talent and Birmingham council."

Birmingham City Council previously denied the allegations and said it did not "condone any actions which are contrary to legislation and good employment practice."

EPA Dozens of bin bags are piled on top of one another on the right of the image with a bin lorry and people stood near it on the left hand-side of the image. Works with fluorescent jacket can also be seen in the image. — Piles of rubbish have been seen in the city, like this mound pictured in April not long after the strike began

In a statement on Monday, the council said "a small number of agency staff" were in a separate dispute with the Job&Talent agency and the authority planned to continue to move forward with its changes to services that were "long overdue".

"While we are disappointed the dispute has not been resolved as Unite has rejected all our offers, we are continuing to make regular waste collections and our contingency plan is working," the spokesman added.

"We have been collecting an average of approximately 1,330 tonnes of kerbside waste every day, more than we did prior to industrial action, and over the last six months we have collected over 100,000 tonnes of kerbside waste."

Agency workers have been part of the refuse collection workforce since before the strike, and Job&Talent said the numbers employed had not changed during the dispute.

'Damaging city's reputation'

Unite union members in the city began a full walkout eight months ago, and in September voted to extend their action until March.

Last month, the union accused senior council managers of threatening to blacklist agency staff who refused to cross the striking bin workers' picket line.

Footage was shared showing a manager from Job&Talent telling staff that council chiefs would ban them from jobs.

Dr Roger Seifert, an industrial relations specialist from the University of Wolverhampton, said the strike was "terrible", had been going on far too long and was damaging the city's reputation.

"Once you go down agency road, the employer loses control over how those agency workers are treated by the agency itself.

"What happens is, the pressure builds up and then there's a tendency to push that pressure on to the workers."

He added: "What we end up with is bad blood, and two sides as far apart as ever, there's no goodwill and in the middle of all this, the people of Birmingham are having a worse service."

A spokesperson for Job&Talent said it remained "firmly committed to operating with transparency, integrity, and full compliance with employment laws".

"We prioritise the rights, welfare, and safety of our workers and maintain regular communication to ensure they feel supported.

It added it took any allegation concerning worker welfare and safety extremely seriously, and would not "tolerate intimidation or threats against workers for exercising their rights, including participation in industrial action".