Glasgow refuse workers have pay docked in the run up to Christmas

Unhappy workers were taken to a depot on Wednesday and told they would be required to sit through a video to teach them how to carry out refuse duties safely and within the local authority’s health and safety guidelines.

But GMB chiefs says the course was ‘outdated and inadequate’ to protect their members, many of whom decided to protest by getting up and leaving the session.

As a result, council chiefs have now told them they will not be paid – leaving many over £100 down from their salary at one of the most expensive times of the year.

GMB cleansing convener Chris Mitchell says the union is outraged by the decision and is fighting to have it reversed.

Chris Mitchell, convener GMB Union pictured outside Glasgow City Chambers. (Image: Colin Mearns)

He said: “It is a disgrace, we simply will not accept this.

“These people did nothing wrong. They didn’t ask to be moved to a different department and for many the role is just too physical and taxing. Many of these guys are coming towards the end of their careers and hauling bins all over the place is difficult manual work.

“It is not their fault if the council doesn’t have enough people to get the bins emptied over the busy festive period and we certainly aren’t going to see them targeted for taking a stand against what the council are looking to do.”

Overflowing bins (Image: supplied)

Mr Mitchell added: “To pull a stunt like this and take money from people’s pockets at Christmas as beyond bah humbug. We will consider every course of action to have this put right. The course was not up to standard."

We previously told how people in parts of Glas­gow could face a wait of up to four weeks to have their bins emp­tied because of changes to the fest­ive pick- up sched­ule.

READ NEXT: Bins in Glasgow back courts will be given priority say council chiefs | Glasgow Times

Uni­ons hit out at Glas­gow City Coun­cil after it announced plans to focus on col­lect­ing refuse from back courts of flats and tene­ments across the city.

Chiefs at GMB say it means that prop­er­ties with a front and back door due a kerb­side col­lec­tion on Decem­ber 25, 26 or Janu­ary 1, 2 will have to wait for their house­hold waste to be taken away at a future revised date. Decem­ber 27 and Janu­ary 3 will be treated as nor­mal col­lec­tion days.

Coun­cil bosses say the new approach will help them get back to a reg­u­lar sched­ule quicker. They had pre­vi­ously pri­or­it­ised catching up on kerb­side col­lec­tions. However, they say that model required addi­tional staff and vehicles, and that any issues caused by the weather, sick­ness or annual leave caused wide­spread dis­rup­tion.

As part of the rethink, 12 work­ers were moved from street cleans­ing to refuse each day to plug staff­ing gaps in the run up to Christ­mas.

The council said the approach to focus on back courts fol­lows on from a pilot in 2024 which allowed teams to get back to reg­u­lar sched­ules faster, and with less need to bring in addi­tional resources.

They claim their pos­i­tion is backed by the find­ings of a new coun­cil report which showed com­plaints around col­lec­tions were down by 3500 in 2024 com­pared with the pre­vi­ous year and that use of the house­hold waste taken to recyc­ling centres rose 35% over the Christ­mas period.

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “The Christmas and New Year period sees higher than normal levels of household and recycling waste, as well as an estimated 250,000 bins uncollected due to the impact of public holidays.

“To prioritise cleansing services across the city during the lead up to and after the public holidays, the council requires additional trained staff from across the service to support household collections.

“In line with previous years, only fully trained and suitable staff undertake these collection duties.

“We operate a robust training programme, and we are satisfied that the role being asked of staff is safe to carry out.

“Staff and trade unions collectively participate in regular Health & Safety forums where any concerns are discussed, and the appropriate steps taken to ensure all work activities take place safely.

“Where staff elect not to follow instruction, the normal council employment policies will be applied.”