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Local campaign group North Edinburgh Fights Back has written to city council leaders seeking assurances that council services will not be privatised. The group wrote the letter following a recent meeting in Muirhouse where concern was expressed over the introduction of increasing numbers of non-council staff into cleansing and refuse operations.

Writing to council leader Councillor Andrew Burns, Mike Vallance said:

I am writing on behalf of North Edinburgh Fights Back, a community group
involved in opposing public service cuts and privatisation, and fighting  against injustice and inequality. You will of course be familiar with our group, not least from our recent presentation of the Anti Poverty Charter to the full CEC meeting.

 As is made clear in the Charter, our group is totally opposed to the privatisation of public services and the cuts in services and worsening in working conditions this invariably entails. As such we played a full part in the campaign to keep the Street Cleansing, Refuse Collection, Janitorial and related services in-house, and were very pleased when the CEC voted to reject the privatisation of these services.

Of course the Labour Group voted to keep these services in-house, and thus our members were shocked when they learnt at our meeting on 25 July in Muirhouse that your administration is presiding over the introduction of large numbers of workers from the private contractor Blue Arrow into the Street Cleansing and Refuse Collection services.

We understand that over the last fortnight around 60 Blue Arrow staff have started operating out of the Cowans Close depot, carrying out street cleansing in Edinburgh city centre. This follows the recent similar controversial use of employees from the private company Enterprise in street cleansing, an episode which was publicised in the local media.

And for several months, refuse collection workers have told us, at least 20 – 30 Blue Arrow employees have been working at the Russell Road refuse depot. In addition five lorries, each staffed by 3 Blue Arrow workers, have been operating out of Powderhall depot. What’s more, Blue Arrow recently advertised for 3 refuse collection supervisors to work on a council contract.

Our members are shocked to hear the CEC are effectively disregarding the decision to keep these services in-house, a decision that so many Edinburgh citizens campaigned to achieve.

We understand from workers we have spoken to, that they believe that new workers are indeed needed and that they should be recruited as normal directly employed council workers, where possible with permanent contracts, and we totally support this.

We have also been informed that shop stewards have brought these matters up with both management and with councillors, and they report their views seem to be ignored.

We also have been informed that the CEC is trying to impose new shift patterns on workers in Refuse Collection, including a compulsory back shift, working up to 10.30pm at night. We are in complete support of theworkforce’s opposition to being forced to work such anti-social hours.

What’s more, it is clear that these hours would mean bin lorries operating in residential areas late at night, causing disturbance to residents, including disturbing children trying to sleep before school the next day. Further we understand from workers that this would cause major problems at addresses where the workers, due to the resident’s disability or frailty, need to come into gardens to take out and empty buckets: such residents are likely to be alarmed at workers doing this relatively late at night, at a time when in winter it will be long past nightfall.

In this respect, we can inform you that at our meeting several people reported bin lorries already operating very late at night, even in the early hours of the morning, in north Edinburgh/ Greater Pilton – we presume this is the private contractors which the CEC are using?

We demand that the CEC reverse the decision to use private contractors in Refuse Collection and Street Cleansing and instead take on the new workers needed as normal directly employed council employees, where-ever possible on permanent contracts. We ask for your immediate reply to explain what you are going to do about this matter.

We further ask that you send us full details of the Blue Arrow contracts in Street Cleansing and Refuse Collection, including length of time, number of workers involved, etc. In addition we ask you to inform us who authorised these contracts, for example were they decided upon at CEC committees and/ or the full Council?

The North Edinburgh Fights Back letter has been passed on to Councillor Lesley Hinds, who has responsibility for Transport, Infrastructure and Environment issues. Cllr Hinds has requested information from the Director of Services for Communities and plans to respond to the group when this information is available.