Night-time bin workers and street cleaners could walk out in the run-up to Christmas amid a fierce dispute over staffing levels, the M.E.N. understands.

Staff are this week poised to ballot for industrial action, arguing Manchester council’s contractor Biffa is expecting too few people to clean up the city each night.

If no agreement is reached, the night shift could go out as soon as the first week in December, just as the festive shopping season kicks into gear.

The dispute is one of two currently playing out between Biffa and staff employed as part of Manchester council’s outsourced bins and street cleaning contract.

Scores of council bin workers transferred over to the firm when the arrangement began in 2015 are also being asked to take a pay freeze for several years while wages of those already working for Biffa catch up, a proposal that may yet also result in industrial action.

(Image: Kate Holmes)

Manchester council told the M.E.N. that night shift patterns were a matter for Biffa and not the town hall, however, adding that it was also ‘usual’ for pay to be ‘harmonised’ when services were outsourced.

The news comes as councillors continue to question Biffa’s performance behind the scenes in the wake of a fractious meeting last month.

They have demanded to see details of the firm’s three-year-old contract after it emerged an array of problems had persisted since the firm was placed on an ‘improvement plan’ in 2017.

Members have also questioned why Biffa has had substantial sums of extra money from the council both for increased demand in the city centre - including pressures related to rising numbers of rough sleepers - and new vehicles, yet litter bins have continued to overflow and bin trucks are still breaking down.

Labour councillors have also raised concerns about employment practices, an issue flagged to them by trade union Unite.

One key dispute centres on intended changes to the number of people expected to sweep Manchester’s streets and empty its litter bins each night. Insiders said that at one stage, prior to Biffa taking over the contract in a town hall move aimed at saving £1.6m, there had been 14 people on the overnight shift.

(Image: UGC MEN)

It is understood that number now stands at nine, but the firm wants to cut that further on some shifts.

After weeks of impasse, trade union Unite is now expecting to serve strike notice this week with a view to triggering industrial action on or around December 6, unless a last-minute deal is struck.

Asked about the night shift changes, Manchester council said: “The number of staff directly employed on the night shift is an issue for Biffa rather than Manchester city council, as the contract with Biffa is based on an output specification and therefore does not require them to employ a particular number of people to undertake the work.

“The operating model employed by the night shift may be different to those undertaken when the service was directly provided by the city council and therefore are potentially not directly comparable.”

Asked about Biffa’s separate plans to freeze the pay of former council workers, executive member for neighbourhoods, Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, a member of Unite, added: "We understand that Biffa are in consultation with their staff and trade unions about harmonising pay for bin collection staff, an issue which has been raised by staff and unions.

“This is not an unusual situation when the workforce has, through TUPE, come from a number of different organisations.”

At October’s neighbourhood scrutiny meeting councillors were scathing about Biffa’s performance in recent months, pointing to an array of persistent issues, from overflowing litter bins to dirty streets.

Some of those problems were blamed by officers and Biffa on rising pressures in the city centre.

The report tabled to committee in October on the subject referred to an increase in city centre flats, adding that 'expansion of the city centre, increase in the night time economy and an increase in the number of rough sleepers resulting in high profile littering (particularly of a hazardous nature), has further stretched Biffa’s cleansing resources'.

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However Manchester council has since confirmed to the M.E.N. that last year Biffa received an extra £490,000 to cover some of those specific issues, through an agreed mechanism built into the contract that allows for 'additional costs'.

“This is for additional street cleaning resource over and above the level provided for in the contract, which includes; a variance in street meterage, an increase in actual requests for service in relation to fly-tipping, dog fouling and hazardous waste, and an increase in street cleansing activity attributable to rough sleepers," it said of the money.

Meanwhile a spike in missed bin collections was last month attributed by officers to ‘vehicle breakdowns’. However audit papers from March show the council loaned Biffa money in 2017 - more than £3m of which is still owed - for ‘the purchase of vehicles for use within the waste collection and street cleansing contract’.

Asked why breakdowns were nevertheless still hitting performance, the council said there had been a delay in Biffa purchasing the new vehicles.

“The initial vehicle replacement plan proposed by Biffa at the start of the contract has slipped, resulting in orders for some refuse collection vehicles being placed later than expected,” it said.

(Image: GMP City Centre)

“This has resulted in a number of refuse collection vehicles operating for a longer than the expected period, which may have contributed to the increased incidences of breakdowns referenced in the scrutiny report.

“The city council is working with Biffa to understand the revised timescales for replacement and how this will be managed in terms of service delivery.”

Councillors and the M.E.N. have asked for copies of the contract with Biffa in order to scrutinise its targets and potential penalties.

Similar agreements - such as the controversial partnership between Amey and Trafford council - are publicly available online, with commercially sensitive elements redacted.

Manchester council said it is ‘not possible’ to do the same ‘at this time’, however, as ‘the work has not yet been completed to suitably redact the contract to enable it to be shared’.

The potential industrial action and additional money provided by the council were both put to Biffa.

A spokesman said: "We wholeheartedly agree with the response that Manchester city council has provided and we have nothing additional to add."