Bin workers in the Unite union have accused Cardiff council of bullying them and trying to sack a union representative for raising the issue.
The union says it will hold a picket of Cardiff County Hall on Tuesday morning to highlight the issue, and is urging people to write to council leader Huw Thomas.
Cardiff Council say they haven’t been presented with concrete evidence by the union, and that they take all allegations of bullying in the workplace seriously.
In an email sent out over the weekend to all of its members in Cardiff, however, Unite Wales said that despite working throughout the pandemic to keep the city clean, workers were on low pay with many on exploitative agency contracts for years. Lots of workers “never know if they have a job from one day to the next,” the union said.
In the fiery communication, the union accused the Labour-run council of mistreatment of workers and union victimisation:
“Bullying managers leave workers stressed, off sick, afraid for their jobs, and unable to speak up about safety concerns for fear of being victimised,” they wrote. “Now they are trying to sack the local union Rep after he ran a petition on bullying and safety at work.”
The email came after a workplace survey which the union says revealed “a shocking culture of workplace bullying at Cardiff Council’s Waste Services Department in a recent survey.”
They said the survey painted a picture of a demoralised workforce experiencing high levels of stress and showed a working environment where workplace bullying is commonplace.
The key findings of the survey of Unite members found that:
Over 60% of workers have either witnessed workplace bullying or had been bullied themselves.
90% of workers have felt stressed because of work during the last 12 months.
Over a third of workers had been off sick from work because of work related stress in the last 12 months.
65% of workers feel they can’t do their job safely.
Commenting on the survey, Unite Regional Officer, Ruth Hydon said:
“Our survey of Cardiff Council Recycling workers is a devastating indictment of a working environment blighted by high levels of stress and workplace bullying. Our members worked throughout the pandemic, for little reward. The culture within the Waste Services Department of Cardiff City Council is unsafe and toxic, it has to change.”
They said that workers had tried to raise concerns with Cardiff council management, but this had been ignored and bosses had even stopped workers meeting with the union.
The union urged its members in Cardiff to contact Huw Thomas and ask him “what he is doing to stop managers bullying us.”
Unite have also announced a public protest outside Cardiff County Hall, Schooner Way, at 8.45am on Tuesday morning, to show support for cleansing workers and their reps.
A Cardiff Council spokesperson said that the council had met with Unite and asked them to bring forward evidence of bullying or health and safety concerns, which can be investigated properly, claiming they hadn’t done so so far.
They said they hadn’t seen the details of the survey. “None the less we are keen to see the details and to investigate any evidence brought before us,” the spokesperson said. “We take all allegations of bullying seriously, and will always work with Trade Unions when they bring forward specific allegations to investigate.”
“We have robust and long-standing processes in place that have been developed in partnership with our Unions – to do just that. All the Unions know we take a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and the health and safety of our staff is a priority for us.”
