It is if the bonus is 5k of it.
Bin men on strike
- Thread starter Guest2
- Start date
It is if the bonus is 5k of it.
I'd rather have the £18k go to a binman than an administrator for one of the government's ridiculous green initatives (like spending £2.5k on new windows to save 4% on the heating bill each year).
its funny how people say it should be min wage, working outside in all weathers walking 12+ miles a day while hurling bins about that can weigh up to 100kg's, running the chance of being bitten by dogs, stuck with neddles and glass from ripped bags (yes everyones on bins but bags are still used a fair bit), and of course running the risk of getting run over (localy thats happend 3 times in the past 10 years).
as for the leeds strike, i cant blame them for doing it. going from £18k basic to £12k (min wage) basic is a fair ole drop. sure they MAY get most of it back in bonuses, but what was wrong with them doing a very hard job for a fair rate of pay in the first place.
as for the leeds strike, i cant blame them for doing it. going from £18k basic to £12k (min wage) basic is a fair ole drop. sure they MAY get most of it back in bonuses, but what was wrong with them doing a very hard job for a fair rate of pay in the first place.
You walked 12+ miles a day, lifted 100kg+ bins, all whilst running the gauntlet of rabid dogs, discarded needles and maniac drivers who want to kill you.
Bin men round here, like I say, wheel the bin to the lorry, press a button and wheel the bin back. Actually, I say "wheel the bin back" it's more like just discard it as close to the curb as possible. It's all quite safe really. Once they've done the houses they all jump back in the lorry, no walking for these guys!
In South Lanarkshire at least it's a relatively easy job.
Our bins need to be on the pavement at the side of our houses prior to the binmen coming. The wheelie bin is then taken to the cart and emptied and then they take the bin and put it back where it came from.
It's not a dirty job, but I'm sure it can be a bit smelly. It's certainly not a job people are going to boast about having.
As for bags or glass or any of the like I don't see how they would be exposed to it here. They simply don't deal with any bags. If you put rubbish out in a bag beside the bin it is not dealt with. I'm not saying that's wrong though, we do have a dump we can take rubbish to if we need to, or if there are any heavy items the council will pick those up separately if you let them know in advance.
The bin service here is efficient, clean, simple and as far as jobs go it has to be undemanding.
I am not saying you're lying GAC. In fact I'm quite willing to accept anything you have to say on the matter, since you have some experience on it. But what I'm saying is that it's not the same everywhere. Perhaps in Leeds the council needs to pull their finger out and make sure the service is operating as it should, rather than allowing it to be a nasty job.
As for a salary of minimum wage plus a performance related pay aspect of an additional 5K.... it's a hell of a lot better than some people get in retail. And the job is probably a lot less hassle than retail.
These days where councils are overpaying people they do need to be able to bring it back into line, strikes are the inevitable conclusion of that. Councils just need to be strong about it and not back down.
I think I've mentioned this in a similar thread before, but my bro used to do it during his holidays and between this and also from what he used to say about the various other departments he supported when he worked in the Council IT department re-inforced my opinion that local government is nothing more than a means of getting the unemployable into work.
He used to do it with a few other student types and they were segrated from the full time guys, purely because they could do their patch and finish early and knock off. The regulars would take as long as possible and would rack up a couple of hours overtime, yet only do the same amount of work.
There's no shortage of people who could do this work, so why should they be getting more than minimum salary. After all this is public funds were speaking about.
He used to do it with a few other student types and they were segrated from the full time guys, purely because they could do their patch and finish early and knock off. The regulars would take as long as possible and would rack up a couple of hours overtime, yet only do the same amount of work.
There's no shortage of people who could do this work, so why should they be getting more than minimum salary. After all this is public funds were speaking about.
Based on that them performance related pay seems like an excellent idea. I dare say the same guys who would take as long as possible would quickly change to getting it done as quick as possible and making sure they always get their 400 a month bonus.
Or just have a fixed pay per area, that way if they get it done quickly they have the day to themselves, if they drag it out, they're not getting any overtime, as clearly it could be done quicker
sounds nice, but dont forget theres other areas they will work on which may not be as easy.
iv worked various rounds here and it can be very different from round to round, if your doing house hold waste in bins it can be a doddle, if your on nice flat streets, the fun starts when your climbing up and down backstreets which can be cobbled or just rough tacks where the cobbles have just fallen in pieces.
the millage is a avg for the rounds here, you will walk over two weeks (alternate areas binned household/recycle) 12 miles a day, not saying its the same for all councils but its a good estimate for a 8-9 hour day and what you can physically do in the time.
bin weights can be all over depending on rounds, plastics can be as light as a couple of kilo and garden waste can be up above 100 with ease. then you have the alternate to bins be it sacks or plastic tubs.
when your doing paper rounds the boxes/sacks (acording to official council and gov figures) weigh no more than 20kilo, in reality when its raining you could be lifting 40kilo up from the floor in to the back of the wagon.
as for the times on the rounds again this differs from council to council, here you do a full day and dont go till clocking off time. other places run it job and finish, where once you finish your round you go home and get paid for the day. so you do have incentive to finish early.
other places have a combined job and finish where all the rounds have to have finished and returned to the depot before anyone can go, this is probably the better option as it means people will help each other out to finish early, and if theres a round that takes there time they will get stick from the other binmen.
the problem is councilors and management DONT listen to the binmen, where i work now they (well a company in london did not the council) have organised the rounds using postcodes, so you have rounds crossing over each other and going back to the same estates 3 times a week.
if they asked the binmen how to do it they would make the rounds as fast as possible so they have a shorter day, so it would save money on fuel and maintenance costs.
but they wont as guys who work as binmen dont know anything past foul language and smoking, even though some guys have well over 20 years exp here.
Sacks? Tubs? Out binmen wouldnt even pick up a bag if THEY dropped it from a bin claiming they cant put bags in unless its in a bin. Anyway, I dont even have a bin. The council STOLE it when it was left out for 1.2 seconds longer than the legal 5seconds after the collection 
. If I want a bin now, I have to pay for one myself, and then the council can again, steal it from me.
. If I want a bin now, I have to pay for one myself, and then the council can again, steal it from me.Sacks? Tubs? Out binmen wouldnt even pick up a bag if THEY dropped it from a bin claiming they cant put bags in unless its in a bin. Anyway, I dont even have a bin. The council STOLE it when it was left out for 1.2 seconds longer than the legal 5seconds after the collection
Grow a pair and see your local councillor.
Dont see the point. I recycle most stuff anyway, and drive to the local recycling village on my way to work. It just narks me that they can do whatever they like and tough if you complain.
Ah. Your first post sounded as if you were helpless without a bin.
Where in headingley are you? i have noticed parts of headingley are worse than others. Im just off shaw lane.
In a few days theres going to be a rubbish problem on the shawlane/st annes cross roads. Theres a flat and the whole pavement is now stacked with bin bags