Hills Municipal Collections have seen a downturn since the middle of May 2022 in applicants to fill vacancies for both Class2 HGV driver and collection operative roles arising from the normal turnover of staff within the business, combined with a reduction in the availability of agency staff to provide temporary cover whilst we look fill these vacancies.

This shortfall in the workforce has resulted in Hills Municipal Collections not being able to put out as many collection vehicles as normal. In agreement with the Council, we have prioritised our collection teams to maintain household residual black bin waste and green waste collections. This in turn has resulted in some residents experiencing delays in collection of their kerbside dry mixed recyclable materials, mainly in the North of the county. We are addressing this problem by running catch up rounds and people are advised to leave their bins out if they are not collected on their scheduled day and they will be emptied as soon as possible, in most instances this will be the following day.

To address the staffing shortage Hills Municipal Collections are undertaking a regional recruitment campaign to attract job seekers to these roles and highlighting the competitive salaries and generous benefits package on offer. Job seekers interested in applying should visit our website www.hillsgroup.co.uk or recruitment agency website www.jobs.cmdrecruitment.com . We would like to thank residents for their patience and can assure them that we are making every effort to return collection services to normal as soon as possible.

The Hills Group has provided Westbury Town Council with additional litter picking equipment to help with additional requests for litter picks in the town

Phil McMullen, Projects & Committee Clerk at Westbury Town Council, contacted Hills to see if the company could assist with providing new equipment, saying: “There is an increase in the number of requests to hold community litter picks in Westbury and for the Town Council to supply the equipment. These are in addition to the four litter picks that the councillors hold each year. The problem is, every time the kit goes out, we end up losing two or three pickers either to breakage or loss). It’s getting to be really expensive!”

Paul Scriven, Northacre MBT Plant Manager for Hills Waste Solutions, said: “We are thrilled to be able to help the Town Council again and provide them with the equipment they need so that these community events can continue to take place.

Andrew Thomas, External Services Team Leader for Westbury Town Council (pictured left), collected the 5 handheld litter pickers, 5 litter pick bag holders, 10 hiviz vests and 200 strong disposal bags equipment from Paul Scriven at the MBT plant (pictured right).

The fire on the Lower Compton landfill has been extinguished and the Fire & Rescue Service left the site at 11.15 this morning.

The Lower Compton Landfill site will open for normal business tomorrow 29 April.

Mike Hill, chief executive of The Hills Group said: “I would like to thank both the Fire & Rescue services for their quick response and our employees who have worked alongside the Fire & Rescue Service during the incident to ensure the fire was brought under control as quickly as possible.”

No personal injury or damage to property has resulted from the incident.

The cause of the fire has not been established and investigations into this will continue.

The Fire & Rescue Service is now reporting the fire as ‘under control’ and has been contained to a section of the landfill cell. Whilst 40,000 tonnes of waste had been tipped into the cell, the vast majority of this waste is unaffected by the fire.

The combined efforts of Hills site staff and the Fire Service have made significant progress in smothering the fire which will continue over the next few hours.

As a result, there will be a ‘watching brief’ overnight and the landfill site remains closed as a precautionary measure.

A member of staff detected a fire on the Lower Compton landfill site at 05:00am Wednesday 27 April. The Fire & Rescue Service was called immediately and the site emergency plan initiated. The incident is ongoing and emergency services remain in attendance. The landfill site has been temporarily closed, but all other operations on site are open.

We are working with the Fire & Rescue Service, and other agencies, to help bring the fire under control. There has been no personal injury or damage to property as a result of the fire. Advice from the Fire & Rescue Service is for local residents to keep windows and doors closed during the incident.

Hills Municipal Collections has received confirmation that employees who are members of the GMB Union will cease strike and return to work on Friday 18 March. The announcement came following GMB Union’s discussions with members today when they agreed to accept a version of an offer that had been previously discussed with GMB Union prior to strike action.

A spokesperson for Hills Municipal Collections said: “Although pleased that the action will now finish, we are frustrated that to all intents and purpose, we have gone full circle, that said, we are pleased that GMB Union members have agreed to accept the deal offered at 7.1% which includes a minimum 2% pay rise back dated to April 2021 and a 5% pay rise from 1 April 2022 with the next annual review in April 2023.”

A spokesperson for Hills Municipal Collections said: “Although pleased that the action will now finish, we are frustrated that to all intents and purpose, we have gone full circle, that said, we are pleased that GMB Union members have agreed to accept the deal offered at 7.1% which includes a minimum 2% pay rise back dated to April 2021 and a 5% pay rise from 1 April 2022 with the next annual review in April 2023.”

Household recycling collections will resume on Monday 21 March and residents should put out their black box and blue lidded bin on their scheduled day. If recycling bins are not emptied on their scheduled day people are asked to leave them out, and they will be collected as soon as possible. Any additional recycling materials stockpiled during the disruption will be collected. People are asked to put those items in non-black bags or containers (such as a plastic crate) next to their recycling bins.Household and garden waste collections continue as normal and people are asked to put those bins out on their normal collection day. There could still be slight delays so people are asked to leave their bins out until collected.

Hills Municipal Collections held a further meeting with GMB union and employee representatives on Monday 14 March with initial indications that they were ready to negotiate. Hills tabled a number of structured proposals that looked to address GMB Union’s concerns, based on affordability for the company.

It is regrettable that the GMB Union officials and employee representatives feel unable to take these offers to union members. Hills has shown a willingness to engage with the GMB Union, even during this period when industrial action is taking place, and is willing to continue with negotiations to bring this situation to an agreeable conclusion for all parties, and particularly for those employees taking industrial action or that feel unable to attend work due to picket line activity and who are out of pocket during a time of uncertainty and financial strain.

A spokesperson for Hills Municipal Collections said: “We are disappointed that GMB Union continue to move the goal posts. Their expectations are changing to such a degree it makes reaching a meaningful dialogue very challenging and we are increasingly frustrated with this approach. We are working hard to ensure that all of our employees, whether represented by one of the three unions or not, are treated fairly through this process.

“Subsequent to the meeting, the GMB Union has given notification of further strike action for the period 23 March to 2 April. Despite this we will continue to negotiate with the GMB Union in the spirit of arriving at a mutually agreeable settlement. Hills Municipal Collections teams will work with Wiltshire Council to minimise disruption to household collection services.”

“We are pleased to welcome back to work a number of employees who have been on industrial action and who recognise the 7.1% minimum pay offer as being a fair settlement.”

In light of certain statements made to local media outlets by GMB union representatives and members, we think it important to set out the facts.

Hills Municipal Collections offered a minimum two percent pay increase to all employees from 1 October 2021, in line with underlying inflation rate at the time. This offer was not accepted by the GMB Union, and they only entered into meaningful dialogue once they had determined to ballot for strike action

The strike was called because Hills Municipal Collection workers, who are members of the GMB Union, wanted a 7% pay rise.

At these negotiations Hills Municipal Collections offered a pay increase of at least 2% backdated to October 2021 and brought forward the 2022 pay review date from October 2022 to May 2022, with an additional 5% pay rise from 1 May 2022.

This offer was accepted by UNISON membership but rejected by the GMB union.

Hills then revised the offer to pay the five percent from 1 March 2022. Overall, this represents a minimum 7.1% pay rise, with some employees achieving an even higher percentage increase up to 15%.

The revised offer was also accepted by UNITE members but was again rejected by the GMB union membership.

The delay in accepting the pay offer has caused real time delays to employees’ pockets as they have gone without a pay rise that was due to them in October 2021, 6 months ago. We firmly believe that the pay offer provides a fair settlement in relation to inflation and indexation, which we know is impacting the cost of living. The offer is in line or ahead of comparable local pay awards and it provides positive certainty in a time of increasing volatility

Further, a GMB union representative has incorrectly stated that employees are on £9 an hour and have not had a pay increase for four years.

We can confirm that all Hills Municipal Collections employees currently earn over £9 per hour, and Hills’ offer will see salaries increase by at least 7.1% between October 2021 and 1 March 2022. Prior salary increase for this bargaining unit was in April 2019 (between 2% and 5.95%) and not four years ago. Due to the pandemic, no pay review was offered in 2020.

In addition, these frontline workers in Hills Municipal Collections received up to £300 lockdown bonus in November 2020 to reward them for their commitment and hard work over the first national lockdown during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, in both 2020 and 2021, we offered up to 10 days full pay per year for COVID related absences and sickness benefit entitlement on top of maintaining existing absence benefits, so that employees did not suffer loss of income due to self-isolation.