Cleansing workers in Glasgow are being “worked into an early grave”, it has been warned, with increasing workloads causing illness and injury.

Further cuts are expected to council services when the budget is set tomorrow, and workers are telling the politicians they cannot take any more.

In a Spotlight series, the Glasgow Times is looking at the impact of cuts to council budgets in the city.

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Cleansing is a service that has suffered cuts over the past 10 years when half a billion pounds have been wiped from the city’s overall budget.

With the prospect of more change coming as the council has to find savings this year of £61m, workers in the city say they are worried about the ability to deliver services in the future.

There are fears over the impact on workers and the city and that a health hazard warning could be the outcome if services are cut further.

Barry McAreavey, acting vice-convenor of GMB Glasgow cleansing, said the cuts have had a serious effect on the workforce.

He said: “It has worked a lot of guys into an early grave.

“Those still working are not able to carry out the job to meet their own expectations of what they want to deliver.

“The workload has increased. We have an ageing workforce because there has been little recruitment.

“The guys have wear and tear injuries, musculoskeletal injuries are common, with knee, shoulder and hip injuries and arthritis from pulling heavy bins all day every day.”

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He said the bins have become larger, and with less frequent collections, they contain more waste, making them heavier.

Mr McAreavey, who has more than 25 years of service, has witnessed the changes in cleansing and wants it to be better.

He added: “We are so short-staffed, workers are not sweeping the streets. We are not able to sweep the channels and drains, so they get blocked, and you have more flooding.

“We know managers don’t have the resources and because of that, we haven’t got the right equipment and what we do have is not good enough quality.

“The workers want to be able to do a better job with the street cleaning than what they are delivering but we don’t have enough workers or time to spend in each area.”

With it being mentioned that with declining budgets councils could have to consider cutting some services and changing how they deliver the statutory services, the union rep is concerned about what it could mean for workers and the city.

He said: “It’s a worry, that’s for sure. Cleansing has been put into the Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability department with parks and roads. Parks and roads have been decimated.”

He said that in some situations, private contractors are doing work.

He added: “We worry they could privatise some services. It’s wrong that public money is going to private industry.

“There’s always been a worry about privatising cleansing services.

“We're not getting the recruitment we need and the guys here are being worked to the bone. They are overworked and underpaid.

“If we don’t maintain these services it will lead to vermin and disease.”

A council spokesperson said the council makes efforts to minimise manual handling, and assessments and training are in place to take account of any risks and help workers avoid injury.

Where someone is hurt or unwell, or becomes unable to perform tasks, the council said they have access to the same support through occupational health as any other employee.