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Canberra's garbage truck drivers will strike for the fourth time in just over a month as an industrial dispute with the contractor Suez drags on. It follows two strikes in May, and one earlier in June since negotiations between the Transport Workers Union and Suez began in February. The ACT government has asked residents of the 28 affected suburbs to leave their bins on the kerb for collection over the weekend. The ongoing dispute is over severance pay for drivers. In an article for The Canberra Times, secretary Klaus Pinkas said drivers had become worse off. Redundancy payments had been set at three weeks per year of service in the old agreement, he said. Under the current Suez agreement, redundancy payments are tens of thousands of dollars less than two years ago. ACT NOWaste director Michael Trushell said Suez and the TWU have been engaged in enterprise bargaining negotiations since February 2016. "The ACT government encourages both parties to continue bargaining in good faith and reach agreement as quickly as possible to avoid disruption to the community," Mr Trushell said. "The ACT government will keep the community informed of the industrial action including any further potential impacts to residents." *Recycling collections also scheduled on this day.

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