GMB ballot for industrial action at Sita commercial waste collection in Crawley depot over pay cuts for drivers

GMB will conduct a consultative ballot for industrial action next week for members employed as drivers on the Sita Sussex commercial waste contract out of a depot near Crawley.

Sita are a national refuse and waste collection business, both household and commercial. The Sussex contract operates out of the Turners Hill Depot, near Crawley and collects from businesses from as far afield as Eastbourne, Brighton and Bognor in the South and to businesses close to the M25 in the North.

Gary Cook, GMB Regional Organiser, said “Sita cut the pay of drivers in June of this year by reducing their working week. Drivers accepted the reduction in the working week in good faith after being told by management that no further changes to their terms and conditions would take place if they accepted.

Sita managers have reneged on that assurance and are now seeking to reduce the pay further of some of the drivers with the justification that they intend to give a pay rise to the lower paid drivers.

GMB are not in the ball game of agreeing to rob Peter to pay Paul. These are hardworking employees who have not had a pay rise in over 5 years and are seeing their wages cut. Sita is behaving in a manner akin to the worst kind of Victorian mill owner.

GMB members have lodged a collective grievance about their treatment and Sita are refusing to give them the opportunity of having this heard. GMB will not stand idly by and allow this abuse to happen.

The feeling of the members has hardened. While members would of course prefer their employer to sit down and deal with the collective grievance in the hope of resolving things, they are prepared to take industrial action which will have a massive impact on commercial waste collections in Sussex.