A row is brewing between Birmingham City Council’s management and senior councillors over how to end the long-running industrial dispute with bin men.

Conciliation service Acas last week said senior councillors had agreed there would be no redundancies, but a report by interim chief executive, Stella Manzie, and corporate director of place, Jacqui Kennedy, to a cabinet meeting yesterday warned of the importance of ‘operating within the allocated budget’.

A recommendation by officers to push ahead with the reorganisation of the council’s waste management service, including making 106 grade three Leading Hands employees redundant, was deferred by cabinet until a meeting next week.

Trade union Unite has said it will not negotiate further until redundancies have been taken off the table.

A Unite spokesman said: ‘A deal has been reached to end this dispute and to ensure that Birmingham has the effective refuse collection service the second city needs.’

‘We call on the opposition parties not to undermine the Acas process or the council leadership or to cause further disruption for local people, but to honour this settlement and support the return of the refuse service.’

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