Bin men making privatising jobs easier, says Cardownie

DEPUTY city leader Steve Cardownie today warned bin men that continuing their industrial action would only make it easier for the council to give their jobs to the private sector.

Bin men are due to start official industrial action, "short of a strike", next week, following six weeks of an unofficial work-to-rule that saw rubbish pile up on the Capital's streets.

The council is already facing a £92 million "black hole" in its finances and a review into which services could be tendered out is already under way.

Councillor Cardownie believes that the current action will provide more weight for the argument to privatise refuse collection.

"We are resolved to see this through," he said. "We still think this is a good offer, we still want to resolve this satisfactorily and we still want to retain the service provision in-house, but we are under more and more pressure, as industrial action goes on, to look elsewhere for provision – and that is the private sector."

It has not yet been revealed exactly what next week's official action will involve, although the council expects that the level of disruption will be similar to the unofficial action that has now been happening for six weeks.

With private contractors having helped to now reduce the delays affecting rubbish collection to a matter of days, rather than up to four weeks previously, Cllr Cardownie believes the dispute will impact what people think of the idea of tendering out the service.

He said: "Members of the public will now get the chance to compare the kind of service that they get from the public sector in terms of the service the council provides and make comparisons.

"There is a process you have to go through to contract out work. It won't happen overnight but certainly we are looking at more efficient ways to do the service we do for the people of this city, especially during the recession and the massive cuts to public expenditure we will be experiencing. We'd be foolish not to.

"If more people think waste disposal (staff) are more prone to take industrial action, it will lend weight to the clamour that these services should be privatised."

Cllr Iain Whyte, the city's Conservative leader, has tabled a motion for next week's full council meeting calling for the city to "market test" how much companies would be seeking to carry out the service.

He said: "

This is the most visible service the council provides. At the moment, it is failing to meet the needs and expectations of council tax payers.

"Council employees have to consider that the service is there for the public and not just to provide a service for ideological or political reasons."

Officials from trade union Unite could not be contacted.