Glasgow City Council has rejected a bid by cleansing workers to delay a return to full time hours.

The decision has led to workers being asked by their union if they want to consider srike action.

Staff had been on reduced hours throughout the coronavirus pandemic to help maintain Covid protection measures.

They had started a phased return from March 23 increasing their shifts by 30 minutes each week with refuse collectors currently working till 5.30pm.

The GMB wanted to delay the phased return and go back to a 3.30pm finish time until the end of this month to co-incide with an expected reduction in Covid, sufficient to ease lockdown across the country.

The council this week informed the GMB union that their request had been "considered" but it was decided that “the return to working hours will proceed as normal”.

The GMB has started a consultative ballot to determine whether it moves to an official ballot on industrial action over the issue.

Chris Mitchell, of the GMB said: “We need to go back to working full hours but it has to be done safely.

“What’s been put in place has kept Covid at bay. We have been working with Glasgow City Council Heath and Safety for risk assessments which are updated every week.”

He said that at some depots it would mean between 50 and 70 people at one time which he said would make two metre distancing very dificult.

Mr Mitchell said workers have been working throughout lockdown to keep the city clean and want to get back to full time when safe to deal with a problem of fly tipping across the city.

Glasgow Times:

A council spokesman said: “It’s extremely disappointing that the GMB continues to claim we have too few staff whilst threatening industrial action to keep staff away from their work.

“Despite what the GMB says, creating a safe working environment for cleansing staff has been an absolute priority and even the GMB’s own safety rep has been satisfied with the covid-control measures we have in place.

“In recent weeks cleansing staff have been gradually moving closer to working regular hours and there is still little or no evidence of transmission of covid-19 within the workplace.

“Appropriate safeguards will be retained as the wider lockdown eases and so it is reasonable to expect the GMB to support the effort to deal with the various cleansing issues they claim to care about.

“We remain open to dialogue to resolve this situation and welcome any constructive proposals the GMB may have.

“But nobody will thank the GMB for disrupting vital services such as bin collections, street sweeping and fly-tipping removal at time when everyone is craving a return to something like normal.”