Two towns to become smelliest in UK when binmen go on 20-day strike in August

The summer of discontent is about to take a very smelly turn with a series of strikes by bin workers.

With temperatures continuing to be above average, residents in the affected towns can expect things to get worse between August 1 and August 19.

That is because members of the GMB Union have voted to stage a walk-out in a dispute over pay.

It means there will be no kerbside rubbish collections for nearly three weeks in Elmbridge and Surrey Heath.

Further walkouts are on the cards if an agreement is not reached, the union warned.

Paul Grafton, GMB regional officer, said they have continually pushed Amey – the company which runs rubbish collection – since April over pay but to no avail.

‘Our members feel they are woefully underpaid and completely under-valued,’ he said.

‘[They] are at least £3 per hour underpaid, plus they don’t have the same levels of sick pay or pension benefits compared to those who are still working under local authority control elsewhere.

‘The waste industry has become a race to the bottom when it comes to terms and conditions of employment as they attempt to use other waste contractors as comparators to drive wages down.’

Mr Grafton said this is something that has been happening for some time now within the industry.

The GMB has already held several strikes this year for refuse collection workers in several parts of the country over pay.

Surrey Heath councillor Colin Dougan said it is ‘very disappointing’ the GMB and Amey have not been able to come to an agreement on pay.

‘Our priority is always serving our community,’ he said. ‘We are working to ensure Amey have contingency plans in place.

‘The contingency plans aim to minimise the impact on residents – but can’t be finalised until the GMB communicate the extent of the strike action.

‘We will be working hard to protect the core food and waste collection services that our residents most rely on.

‘To do this we may need to temporarily redirect resources away from other services such as recycling and bulky waste collection and street cleaning.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Amey for a comment.

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