Jessica Jones went nearly three weeks without having her rubbish picked up by garbage collectors and the smell was getting unbearable.
“They just stopped coming – we would put out our bins on a Sunday night and they wouldn’t be picked up,” she said. “The smell was atrocious.”
Tens of thousands of bins across eastern Sydney have been left uncollected for weeks after garbage collectors went on strike as their negotiations for better pay and conditions dragged on.
“It was really frustrating, it smelled so bad and there were flies everywhere, it was really gross,” Jones said, adding that her whole street in Waterloo was affected.
The 27-year-old, who works in commercial real estate, said the dispute should be resolved as soon as possible. “If they are after more pay, just pay them what they want,” she said.
Another Waterloo resident Chris Jespen agreed on the need for urgent action.
“The chutes on each level of the building just started piling up,” Jepsen said. “Usually you don’t even notice them getting full but I opened it the other day and it was overflowing.
“We were emailed and told there was a strike going on. It’s just one of those things that shows what you take for granted, all the invisible services we rely on.”
The Transport Workers’ Union filed a lawsuit in the federal court this week, seeking maximum penalties of up to $125,000 against the waste management firm Cleanaway.
Cleanaway is contracted by the City of Sydney council, which is expecting more than 78,000 people to descend on to its streets in the coming days as part of WorldPride, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ event.
The union alleges that the company, which is the target of the strikes, stalled proposed industrial action last year by failing to comply with the terms of orders issued by the Fair Work Commission that would have allowed members at its Erskine Park and Hillsdale sites to vote on which protests they wanted to take part in.
The commission has accepted a proposal to hold a hearing next Wednesday in an attempt to find a solution.
A Cleanaway spokesperson said it had made a new offer it believed was the “most fair and reasonable for employees”.
“Cleanaway entered into bargaining with the TWU in good faith to ensure our employees receive the most fair and reasonable agreement,” they said.
The TWU New South Wales and Queensland secretary, Richard Olsen, said it should not have taken an intervention from the commission to help mediate the situation.
“It shouldn’t take action through the Fair Work Commission for Cleanaway to comply with its obligations to bargain in good faith with workers’ legal representatives but once again here we are,” he said.
“Workers achieved a win this week, with Cleanaway brought back to the table via a conference in the Fair Work Commission next Wednesday.”
The City of Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, has met Cleanaway and is urging the company to resolve the dispute quickly.
“While Cleanaway has an excellent track record of delivering this fundamental service, due to a range of factors – some within their control, and some outside their control – the expected standards of the city have not been met of late,” she said.
“I was clear this had to change. We are Australia’s global city, with the highest density population, and our waste collection is paramount – especially in the lead-up to WorldPride where we will once again be on the global stage.”
Moore said the cleaning teams that maintain public spaces are internal and their operations won’t be affected by the strike.
“We will also have additional teams working hard during Sydney WorldPride to keep the city clean, particularly before and after major events,” she said.
