Veolia has been working in partnership with Sheffield City Council to provide waste management and recycling services for the residents of the city since 2001 and our priority is keeping these essential services running.
For almost 20 years, Veolia has had a recognition agreement with the GMB Union, which represents the majority of our workforce.
As you may be aware, in recent months, Unite the Union has been striking over recognition and membership. Our teams have been working extremely hard to keep disruption to bin collections to a minimum and we will continue to do so.
Please find our latest statement on the issue here.
A Veolia spokesperson said:
“Yesterday, the Central Arbitration Committee rejected Unite the Union’s application for recognition at Sheffield because there is already a collective bargaining agreement in place with the GMB.
“This decision backs what Veolia has said for nine months; this is an inter-union dispute and an attempt by Unite to muscle in on a long standing agreement with the GMB and bully Veolia into breaking that agreement. Unite has entirely mischaracterised the dispute from the beginning.
“From the outset, Veolia has gone to extraordinary lengths to create the conditions for dialogue between Unite and GMB. We promptly and repeatedly approached the Trades Union Congress and other mediation bodies in the UK which, disappointingly, refused to intervene.
“Despite our commitment to dialogue, Veolia has been the target of a relentless and misguided campaign of intimidation and harassment by Unite officials, who have falsely cast us as “union-busters”. Veolia has always maintained that this is completely untrue - we have a rich history of industrial relations and we will always respect the right of all employees to be a member of a trade union of their choice.
“Veolia will vigorously continue legal proceedings against Unite for the damage caused by its nine month campaign of defamation to undermine our reputation and our business.
“We call on Unite to immediately end their misguided and unnecessary campaign, respect the CAC’s decision and accept the GMB’s offer which will enable our colleagues to return to work.”