BINMEN are preparing for possible strike action after rejecting a below inflation pay rise offer.

Veolia Environmental Services, which carries out household waste collections on behalf of Bromley Council, has offered the workers a two per cent increase.

But the Unite trade union has turned this down and is now preparing to ballot its members for strike action.

It is also balloting members in Croydon with the intention of co-ordinating strike action so any stoppages take place on the same days.

Unite regional officer Onay Kasab said: "What Veolia is offering is in reality a pay cut - the pay of workers is not matching the cost of living. “Utility bills, food, travel, all are getting more expensive.

“Yet we are told this is the price that workers must pay for an economic mess that we did not cause.

“Banks and big companies are sitting on huge reserves and profits, the rich are getting richer.

“So nobody should tell us there is no money - what we are are justifiably doing is demanding the share owed to working people."

The next stage of the campaign will be a formal industrial action ballot to take place within the next four weeks.

A Veolia spokesman said: "We have a long and proud history of working in Bromley and Croydon and have always negotiated and settled amicably with the union on pay issues.

“Having offered two per cent in Bromley and about to do the same in Croydon, it is disappointing that on this occasion the union has chosen to go to ballot straight away without completing negotiations with us first."

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