City council leaders have been accused of breaking promises to almost 200 workers transferred controversially to Bristol Waste after it emerged they now face redundancies, pay cuts and increased workloads. Furious trade union reps and opposition councillors say Bristol City Council has washed its hands of the 196 cleaners and security staff who moved over from the local authority to its waste company in 2021.
In an email seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, GMB union Avon & Wessex branch secretary Jeff Sutton has urged Labour mayor Marvin Rees and council bosses to “man up and admit a mistake was made and bring these services back to Bristol City Council”. Both the mayor’s office and the local authority have refused to comment while Bristol Waste says working patterns and shift structures need to be reviewed to help deliver the services more efficiently, so the business can compete more effectively for new contracts in tough economic times.
Widespread concerns were raised about the Tupe transfer of the then council employees when it was first proposed in January 2021, with the aim of saving taxpayers £2million over four years and then £900,000 annually. Cabinet approved the move two months later, with deputy mayor Cllr Craig Cheney (Labour, Hillfields) promising “no future redundancies and complete protection of contracted terms and conditions” throughout the initial four-year contract, while Mr Rees said the agreement provided a “real hard-and-fast safety net”.
Read more: Fears for Bristol Waste jobs after staff transfer 'disaster'
But two months ago, Bristol Waste confirmed it was reviewing working patterns and that some cleaning and security staff could see their shifts changed. Now Mr Sutton says potential redundancies are on the cards, along with other changes including cuts to shift allowances.
In a statement to a recent meeting of the council’s HR committee he said Bristol Workplace, a facilities management business operating under the waste company, was reviewing its cleaning and security services. He said: “The focus is to reduce hours, shift allowances and make some, possibly up to 20, staff redundant.
“Those staff remaining in cleaning services will have their workload increased by around 50 per cent, some displaced staff may have to take on new duties to replace the hours they lose, which could result in extended work days.” Mr Sutton told the meeting on Thursday, April 27, that security staff would be given fixed shifts and could lose shift pay, while those on night duty would effectively have only one complete day off on Sundays because of their working hour patterns.
He said: “We were all told at the time of transfer discussion, including the then HR committee, that everything would be wonderful, jobs unchanged, business would be expanded, new opportunities created for staff and a new revenue stream for Bristol City Council as the only shareholder.” Mr Sutton said employees and unions had been “misled” two years ago by bosses at City Hall and Bristol Waste who “time after time promised them that there would be no redundancies and no changes to their terms and conditions”.
“Moreover, we all were led to believe that if there were any major issues, the business would be brought back into Bristol City Council,” he said. “The GMB is asking that the whole process be reviewed and investigated.”
In an email to the city mayor two days earlier he claimed two members of staff had resigned over the proposals and three were off with stress. He wrote: “With the greatest respect it's time to man up and admit a mistake was made and bring these services back to Bristol City Council.”
Cllr Richard Eddy (Conservative, Bishopsworth) raised the issue at the overview & scrutiny management board (OSMB) the previous week where he backed the “grave concerns” of the GMB, Unison and Unite unions over the broken commitments. He said at the HR committee: “I have been a longstanding critic of the cabinet’s move.
“The difficulty we have is that these 200 staff who were given false promises are no longer council employees, so it is not in our remit to discuss it here.” He said OSMB had agreed to consider examining it over the coming months because one of its responsibilities was to scrutinise Bristol Waste’s business plan.
HR committee chairwoman Cllr Lorraine Francis (Green, Eastville) said: “We are entering a situation where staff are losing their jobs and livelihoods and changes in conditions on quite a regular basis, and it has to stop.” After the meeting, Green group deputy leader Cllr Tim Wye, who read out Mr Sutton’s statement at the committee, said: “If the council moves staff to Bristol Waste or any other outsourced company, they must ensure that they maintain their terms and conditions.
“These staff are amongst the poorest paid, they work hard to keep our buildings secure and clean – we need to do right by them. We will be asking for a briefing on this as part of HR committee.”
Bristol Waste said it could not provide a statement but provided some “background information” which was almost identical to what it said in March in response to the concerns about the review of working patterns. The company said at the time: “Since the transfer of cleaning and security services to Bristol Waste, commercial revenue has increased by £800,000 and savings of over £700,000 have been made.
“We have also achieved National Security Inspectorate (NSI) accreditation for Guarding and Cash and seen an increase in positive staff and customer feedback, with 69 per cent of staff saying they felt there had been an improvement in training since the move. The tough economic climate, increasing inflation and wage costs, restrictive contracts and a cost of operating crisis across the public sector have made growth harder to achieve.
“These services currently rely heavily on overtime and agency support, and need to be delivered more efficiently. In order to achieve essential savings, a sustainable profit and enable the business to compete effectively for new contracts in a highly competitive market, working patterns and shift structures for cleaning and security staff need to be reviewed.”
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