Striking bin workers have rejected a fresh salary offer which a council leader says is a “good day’s pay for a full day’s work”.

Binmen employed by Canenco - Canterbury City Council’s (CCC) in-house company - walked out on July 5, demanding drivers be paid £15 an hour and loaders £12 an hour.

But despite them receiving a new pay offer from the firm, which the council says met their “demands on salary and parity with neighbouring councils in full”, striking members of the GMB union have today rejected the deal.

The offer was £15 an hour for drivers and £12 an hour for loaders from January 2024, paid for from changes to working operations at Canenco.

CCC says it represents an additional percentage increase of 4.6% on the previous deal agreed with Unison in July, going from 7.6% to 12.2% overall.

The authority also says the deal reflects working practices in neighbouring districts and the January start time for the uplift was again in line with other areas.

It could mean strike action will likely run for many more weeks.

Council leader Cllr Alan Baldock (Lab) said: “This was it – the final offer. A good day’s pay for a full day’s work. But it has been dismissed out of hand.

“And so we, Canenco and residents are now in the position where recycling collections will continue to be disrupted for the foreseeable future. This despite the offer providing the parity that the GMB had asked for.

“Clearly we now have to consider other options for the collection of recycling, because after nearly seven weeks of missed collections for paper, card, plastics and glass, we know things will be backing up in lots of households.

“This is not where we wanted to be at all but sorting this out continues to be a priority for us and more information on what measures we can put in place will follow in the near future.”

After a month of bin strikes the council agreed to meet workers’ pay demands – but only if staff agree they can no longer knock off early.

Previously, bin crews were permitted to go home as soon as their round was complete in an arrangement designed to reward efficiency known as “job and knock”.

However, if the GMB members had accepted the council's offer, they would have been required to work their contracted hours.

The proposed pay increase, which was set to cost an extra £300,000 to be found from efficiency savings at Canenco, would be applied to staff both in the GMB and Unison, and those not in unions.

The council has been clear that the money for the pay uplift would have come from cost-cutting measures made to Canenco’s existing budget.

To do this they said efficiency would be improved as staff were expected to work their full contracted hours.

Additionally, round sizes would have been increased but the council assured the workload would have been fairly allocated.

As a result, fewer crews and vehicles would be required to run the service.

No redundancies were planned and the council said the reduced staff count would come from less frequent use of agency workers and choosing not to replace staff who leave in the coming months.

Over the past week recycling bins have not been emptied throughout the city, Whitstable and Herne Bay, with the materials being allowed in black bins.

Previously members of one union, Unison, accepted a pay rise of 8.9% for loaders and 7.3% for drivers, but the GMB union refused the proposal, arguing they want to be paid the same as what refuse workers already make in Dover, Folkestone, Ashford and Swale.

The strike has already been extended to at least September 10.

GMB regional organiser Frank Macklin said: “Whilst our members welcome the £12 and £15 hourly rates, they are doing the work now and should be paid for it now, not next year.

“Our members are in dispute over the pay rise for 2023, in which we have had record increases in the price of food, electricity, gas and other necessities.

“Time and again throughout this process, GMB has invited CCC and Canenco to engage in proper pay talks brokered by ACAS, the impartial Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) and we are again repeating that invitation.

“It is clear that the two sides are not that far apart, so getting the council, Canenco and GMB together in a room with Acas and thrashing out a deal has to make sense.

“GMB calls on the council and Canenco to sit down with us at ACAS tomorrow and find a solution.”