A strike among bin workers in Birmingham has left piles of waste around the city.

At the heart of the dispute is the removal of the role of Waste Recycling and Collection Officers (WRCO), who were paid more than some other bin workers.

Bin workers can be paid differently, depending on their role in the process of bin collection.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes estimated earnings for the category “refuse and salvage occupations” whose role is to “supervise and undertake the collection and processing of refuse”.

According to the ONS, these workers earned an average £26,543 in 2024, which equates to a little over £13 per hour. The minimum wage for workers over 21 in 2024 was £11.44 per hour.

The National Careers Service says that the pay range for a bin worker is on average between £24,000 and £30,000 per year, or equivalent to between £11.50 and £14.50 an hour.

Birmingham City Council told us that the pay band for loaders – the most junior people working on a bin lorry – in Birmingham was £24,027 to £25,992 – that’s about £11.50 to £12.50 an hour.

Drivers are counted in a different category – heavy and large goods vehicle drivers – whose average earnings were £38,337, according to the ONS.

In Birmingham, they are on a scale from £33,366 to £40,476.

The bin lorry drivers in Birmingham were accompanied by two loaders and a WRCO, but the council now wants to cut the crews to three by getting rid of the role of the WRCOs.

WRCOs are on a higher pay band than the loaders – £26,409 to £32,654. We asked Birmingham City Council for their full job description but were not given it.

Unite, the union representing the striking workers, says this back of the lorry role is “safety critical” but the council says that “none of the roles make any specific reference to there being a lead person responsible for health and safety”, as this is something all members of staff have a duty to follow.

It also said keeping the higher-paid role could open up the council to more equal pay claims as refuse collection is a job overwhelmingly performed by men.

Unite claims that the scrapping of the WRCO role will leave some workers having to accept pay cuts of up to £8,000.

The council says that the figures are “incorrect” and “no-one will lose £8,000 per annum”. Their estimate is that the maximum amount anyone could lose would be “just over £6,000”.

The union has got to the £8,000 figure by considering somebody who decides to accept a position as a loader once their WRCO role is scrapped – and not take the council’s alternative suggestions. They calculated the loss moving from the top of the pay scale for WRCOs – £32,654 – to the bottom of the pay scale for loaders – £24,027.

Where you are on the pay scale is known as your spinal point and is usually determined by the number of years you’ve been doing the job and some additional factors.

It’s because of these spinal points that it’s unlikely that somebody would move from the top of one pay scale to the bottom of a more junior one, especially when that junior role is in the same sector of services.

Max Winthrop, a member of the Law Society’s Employment Law Committee, said: “I’d normally expect the spinal point on the higher grading to be maintained when a lower graded post was offered.”

He does say, though, that it’s “not impossible” for the opposite to happen if both sides agree to such a contract.

The council has reached its maximum pay cut figure by assuming that a WRCO, who decides to stay as a bin worker despite the lower pay scale for loaders, would preserve his spinal point. That is more realistic, but still a pay cut of at least 18%.

A consultation on plans for compulsory redundancies affecting up to 72 refuse staff began on 3 April.

In a response to a Freedom of Information request, the council said that, as of the end of 2024, it employed 736 workers directly in refuse collection and 493 agency workers.

It said that the average cost of employing agency workers was £18.44 an hour, although that may include loaders, WRCOs and drivers and is the amount being paid by the council, not the amount received by the workers.

That would work out at a cost to the council of about £38,000 a year if the worker was employed full time.

The FOI also asked the length of service of the longest serving agency worker employed by the council and was told that they had been doing the job for 13 years.

Additional reporting by David Verry