Bad Backs for Bury Bin-men!

BURY MBC this week denied that its newly imposed 3-weekly collections of grey non-recycable waste was resulting in more injuries to the Council workers.  This was after a spokesman for the local Bury Unite branch had claimed two operatives were off on the sick with a bad back and shoulder respectively.

A Bury Council spokesman told the Bury Times:
'The council has not seen an increase in injury to employees since the move to three-weekly collections.  All staff are trained in safe manual handling techniques and in instances where a bin is found to be too heavy to empty, crews are advised that it should be left and stickered.  This has always been the case and nothing has changed in this respect.'

A union leader, Brian Bamford, local Secretary of Bury Unite, had said:
'This week, a safety representative at Bradley Fold depot reported to me that since the new change to three-weekly collections there had been an increase in injuries.'

Mr. Bamford continued:
'Part of the problem arises from the binmen being forced to shift two bins at a time to complete their new rounds on schedual.  Doing this is contrary to the advice of management and the workforce safety representatives, but workers now feel they may be penalised, or even victimised, if they fail to complete their rounds on schedual.  In this kind of rat-race, younger workers are being played off against some of the older lads.'

The Bury Council admitted:
'The new service has required settling into but we refute any allegation that our valued workforce is victimised in any way.'

Amen, to that!