Fears rubbish will pile on streets as unions tell binmen to stay at home if pinged

Unions have told binmen to stay at home if they are ‘pinged’ despite their exemption, raising fears that rubbish will pile up on the streets.

Refuse collectors no longer have to self-isolate if they are ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid-19 app, and can instead take a Covid test while at work.

They were made exempt last Tuesday (July 27) along with tax collectors and vets, as ministers expanded the exemption list in a bid to counteract the effects of the ‘pingdemic’ which has seen more than 1.2 million people forced to self-isolate within a week.

Unison, the UK's largest trade union which represents a range of council waste collectors nationwide, said that employees who are pinged by the app should not be “forced” to go to work.

The union said that this should be the case even if they were to test negative or are exempt from self-isolation rules under the updated Government guidance.

“People are being pinged for a reason and that's because they may have come into contact with the virus,” said Mike Short, the union’s deputy head of local government.

“Only in exceptional circumstances should refuse staff notified by the app be asked into work. No one should be forced to go in, and anyone that does must be regularly tested in work time.”

GMB, a trade union representing more than 620,000 workers, opposed the introduction of exemptions last month and accused the Government of “gambling with key workers’ lives” by allowing them to go to work despite having been instructed by the app to self-isolate.

The Scottish branch of GMB has now advised at least 2,300 members who work in waste roles for local authorities to refuse their exemption status.

“A major underlying factor in the so-called ‘pingdemic’ is the chronic understaffing in our frontline services after years of cuts, and our cleansing and waste is no different,” said Drew Duffy, the GMB Scotland senior organiser for public services.

“But the Scottish Government’s new guidance has opened the door for employers across the country to heap more pressure on these key workers if they have been exposed to Covid-19. That’s not safe for workers, families or communities.

“And again, some of the lowest paid are being asked to take the greatest risk in another example of how poorly they are valued by the government. It’s why we are advising our members to exercise their right to refuse and instead follow the general self-isolation rules if they are exposed to Covid-19.”

It is understood that the trade union has the same policy towards key workers self-isolating across the rest of the UK.

The move comes after The Telegraph revealed leaders of the UK’s largest unions were encouraging key workers, including in transport and food, to ignore the exemption rules and stay at home, threatening a summer of disruption for holidaymakers, shoppers and commuters.

ISU and Usdaw told this newspaper that staff would be backed to self-isolate, and RMT threatened to launch strike action over Downing Street’s exemption scheme.

“Frankly, it’s nothing to do with them”

Now, the prospect of thousands of refuse workers self-isolating even if they do not have any symptoms raises the spectre of waste going uncollected and litter filling the streets.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said that unions telling exempt workers to self-isolate is “just absurd.”

“The unions now think they know better than everybody else,” he told The Telegraph. “Going forward, you should test and as long as you have the two jabs you shouldn’t have to self-isolate. This is stupid because it’s quite clear from all the science that if you’ve had two jabs, your chances of catching it or passing it on is staggeringly diminished.

“With refuse collection workers, their jobs are so crucial to keep streets tidy and workers should carry on if they don’t have to self-isolate. Unless the unions have some inside information about the vaccines, then frankly it’s nothing to do with them.”

Waste collectors in Bexley have been on strike in recent weeks against their employers Serco, which has led to some residents going four weeks without having any rubbish taken from them.

At the start of last year, bags of rubbish also piled up on the streets of Birmingham as workers called in sick during the Christmas period, which led to reports of rats chewing at the overflowing bags.

The current quarantine rules are set to last until August 16, at which point the Government will allow everybody who has had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine to avoid self-isolation.