A ROW between cleansing staff in Limerick City and County Council and their employer centred on more than special payments for cleaning up hazardous waste, it has emerged.
Last Monday and Tuesday (November 4 and 5), staff from the Council’s Cleansing Section of the Roads, Traffic, and Cleansing Department undertook “unofficial” strike action, resulting in some bins across the city overflowing with dirt.
It was reported that the action was taken over the attempted pulling back of a payment – known as a ‘dirt payment’ – made to workers for cleaning up potentially hazardous items on the city’s streets, such as hypodermic needles, dog foul, and human excrement.
The two-day action ended following talks between cleansing staff and the Council on Tuesday last.
It has since emerged that while issues over the dirt payment formed a small part of cleansing staff’s grievances, the strike centred around wider management issues and a perceived lack of training in the Limerick City depot.
A source close to the action, who did not wish to be named, this week told the Limerick Post that the dirt payment “wasn’t our main issue” and it “wasn’t an issue that was brought up” in talks between cleansing staff and the Council last week. The source said the payment was “one of the minor issues”.
A spokesman for Limerick City and County Council added that there was “no effort” by the Council to claw back the dirt payment from qualifying staff.
The source close to the strike action said the main issue for cleansing staff was with management, who they claimed are “trying to privatise the Council”.
The source claimed that the two-day “sit in” kicked off because management brought in a “third party, a private company, to come into our yard while there was no one around” to carry out cleaning works. The source was of the belief that the task “should have been offered to of the lads here”.
After talks between staff, SIPTU union reps, and the Council, the cleansing staff agreed to go back to work last Wednesday (November 6), with further talks to take place in two weeks.
The source also cited gaps in staffing and training as being among the grievances raised at last week’s meeting.
The source claimed that vacant positions within the yard “weren’t being filled” on account of a lack of training in cleansing staff, alleging that no training was provided to staff despite the Council being aware of the vacancy.
“You’ve known that these positions have been coming up vacant for the last year, so why wouldn’t you provide training?” the source asked.
A Council spokesman confirmed that efforts are ongoing to fill vacant positions within the yard, explaining that “as a result of a retirement earlier this year, a position became vacant and efforts are continuing to fill this position”.
He added that training is provided by the Council “on an ongoing basis” and that “requests for additional training are assessed on a case by case basis”.
