SINGLE STATUS: THE DUSTMAN’S STORY

18-01-2008

The Stirrer has received this email from a Birmingham City Council refuse worker, who lifts the lid on the current offer being made to him and his colleagues under the Single Status review. To compensate for the loss of annual bonuses of more than £10,000 his basic pay will rise - but he'll still end up losing £4,000 a year, with no salary protection. This is his story, in his own words.

I work for BCC as a binman and could scream when I heard all the comments banded around about us.

It has been reported in the press that we were receiving a bonus in our wages of 10k a year - this is true, but what has not been reported is that this was almost half of our annual income.

[Under the new offer] I stand to lose 4k a year off my income but to top that we have no idea what other conditions are being added to our contracts; we are not getting the 3 or 2 years protection - our wages drop 1st April this year and we also lose our right to appeal.

We have been told that if we do not accept this deal we will lose 11k a year off our income. I’d ask Cllr Rudge if we do not accept this deal, will he go public and say the figure of 272 people losing more than 10k is now very incorrect? I think not.

For all the people out there that think we are very overpaid I say this ...after nearly 20 years in this job my body feels like it has aged 50 years. I walk miles each day, lift tonnes, come home soaked through to the skin, get injured on a regular basis, am verbally and physically abused by the public, and everything else we put up with and all this because of the massive wage of 24k.

So if people think it's that good, there will be a few jobs going soon because I for one can earn 13k sat in a nice warm office and picking up more crap than we put up with.

And for those of you that have not worked it out BCC want us on board more than anybody because our service is the only one that affects everybody.

Does a dustman deserve £24,000 a year?

Would you do the job for less?

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