Councillor Guild made a defence of the council’s decision to engage the services of an agency in seeking to find temporary workers to clean up the city centre.

He rejected the “scab labour” term saying it was not one he used and stressing the importance of “keeping the emotive content to a minimum”.

Although the Unite union has claimed that employing temporary agency workers would simply transfer its members’ strike action on to household refuse collections, causing misery for ordinary people whose bins would lie unemptied, Mr Guild said rubbish could not be allowed to build up in the city centre.

He said, “As far as I’m aware, domestic waste has not been used in the dispute and the core domestic collection is something the council is determined to maintain.

“I know the dispute is being handled largely within the waste management department with input from the chief executive. They are looking at various ways of coping with the situation if it becomes prolonged.

“We are trying to ensure that any inconvenience to the public and especially trade customers is kept to a minimum.

“If it continues that trade waste is not picked up in the city centre then employees in the waste management department will actually lose out because some traders may well move to commercial contractors instead of staying with Dundee City Council. I would ask the union to keep that in mind.

“There are rumblings from one or two traders and I am concerned it could lead to job losses within waste management.

“It may very well be that we have protracted negotiations (in the dispute) and it’s essential we have cool heads on both sides.”

Unite’s regional organiser Colin Coupar accused the council’s chief executive Alex Stephen of effectively using “scab labour” to break their strike action in the city centre which, by refusing to collect trade waste at weekends, is designed to leave the streets in an “unsightly” state to force the council to negotiate.

Unite claims that Mr Stephen has simply told workers – without leaving room for negotiations – that public holidays, for which they receive an enhanced payment, will be included within their normal holiday entitlement, costing low-paid workers hundreds of pounds a year.

However, Mr Guild said the chief executive had told him suggestions had been put to union representatives on Thursday and had been rejected.

Mr Guild said he did not know the details of Mr Stephen’s approach to the union but said it was designed to resolve the dispute.

Dundee City Council said there was a “very real possibility” that disruption to the city centre could lead to traders using other contractors to uplift their trade waste with a resultant loss of jobs in the waste management department.

A spokesman said, “The city council has a duty to keep the streets clean. If the union continues to refuse to let its members work overtime at time and a half, then we need to look at alternative ways of cleaning the city centre streets at the weekend.