Waste collectors work just 3½-hour day, says council

DÚN LAOGHAIRE-Rathdown County Council is planning to appoint a private contractor to run its refuse collection service.

The council cited rising costs, household arrears and the three-and-a-half hour working day of its current refuse operatives.

The move is being resisted by unions and the People Before Profit Alliance, which is planning protests against the move.

The council is also considering withdrawing from the four Dublin local authorities' waste management strategy. In a letter to councillors in recent days, county manager Owen Keegan said private sector competitors offered "a significantly better service at lower cost to households".

He said the council's customer base fell from 66,000 in December 2006 to 34,000 last month. "Black bin" waste collected had declined from almost 65,000 tonnes to 18,000 in the period. Introduction of a pay-by-weight system and lower cost private competition had lain behind the declines.

The council said it had tried to compete with the private sector and had held charges at 2006 levels and expanded recycling services. It had deferred withdrawing collections from households which were not paying, or in significant arrears, "least they be tempted to sign up with a private operator".

Mr Keegan told councillors that union agreements were based on 26,000 bin lifts per week, but the service was now only averaging 11,000, "with the same number of staff and vehicles deployed".

It is unclear whether elected councillors could block the manager's proposal.

Siptu organiser Raymond O'Reilly told The Irish Timeshe was surprised at the manager's letter as staff and management were due to meet at the Labour Relations Commission on November 4th to discuss rationalisation of the refuse service.

Spokesman for the People Before Profit Alliance Richard Boyd Barrett said a protest was planned for outside the council chamber on October 13th.