| Streets were littered with takeaway boxes and discarded fish and chip wrappers, while industrial waste bins were left overflowing outside many premises, leaving a veritable feast of rotting food for vermin.
Amongst the worst hit areas were Nethergate, Whitehall Street, Union Street, Reform Street, the City Square and parts of the High Street.
The disruption is being caused by cleansing workers taking strike action in a dispute with the council over holiday pay.
New pay arrangements introduced by the council this year mean low earners will lose between £400 and £600 a year in wages.
Several public holidays are now included in employees’ annual leave entitlement, and overtime payments for existing staff will be reduced from double time to time-and-a-half, saving the council an estimated £300,000 annually.
Window cleaner Darren Petrie said he was shocked at the state of the city centre this morning.
“I’ve never seen it this bad before,” he said. “I work in the city centre every morning except Sunday and I’ve never seen this amount of rubbish just strewn around all over the place — it’s shocking.”
Working the early shift at Reform Street eatery TGFS, employee Moira Gardiner said she was surprised at the amount of litter in the city centre.
“It’s not normally this bad,” she said. “We have kept our bin out back so the seagulls don’t attack it, but Reform Street would have been even worse if we hadn’t done that.
“I’m not worried about the rubbish affecting trade because we have a lot of regulars coming in, but if anyone was visiting Dundee over the weekend or anything it wouldn’t give a very good impression of the city.”
Meanwhile, one of the 23 temporary street cleaners drafted in to help while the strike continues said, “I’ve never seen anything like it.
“I think city council management should at least speak to the union. There doesn’t seem to have been any communication at all and it really looks like the top dog is just ignoring it and hoping it’ll go away.
“You can’t blame the public because the bins are all full.
“People have tried to put rubbish in the bins, but we don’t have keys for them so they’re not being cleared and are just overflowing, which is leading to all this mess.
The industrial action by 200 Unite members — which involves an overtime ban and work-to-rule — has been called in a dispute over public holidays that the union claims is leaving the lowest-paid workers out of pocket.
Last week, Dundee City Council assured the public the main shopping precinct and surrounding streets will be tidied up — despite today’s Victoria Day holiday.
A council spokesman said today, “The council agreed unanimously it would not continue paying double time for voluntary overtime and the rate is now paid at time and a half.
“The council is disappointed the trade union Unite is now threatening to escalate this unnecessary industrial action.” |
