UNITE the union has accused Birmingham City Council of strike-breaking after analysis showed it had doubled spending on agency staff since the start of an all-out bin workers’ strike last March.

The council strongly refuted “any suggestion that agency workers have been carrying out work normally undertaken by striking workers”  – which is unlawful – in response to the Guardian research.

The paper’s figures showed more than £4.3 million was spent on agency staff working in fleet and waste operations – which covers bin collections as well as other refuse services – between April to December 2024. This doubled during the same period in 2025, to more than £8.8m.

The Labour-run council insisted it was using the “same level of agency staff as before the strike,” stressing the figures do not refer solely to residential waste collection.

But Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The council continually denied it but the figures here, that the Guardian have exposed, show the truth. The facts are clear. 

“The council needs to stop wasting Birmingham residents’ money trying to break the strike and instead resolve the strike.”

The authority reportedly spent on average £481,000 a month on fleet and waste operations agency staff in the nine months before strikes began in January 2025. 

That increased to £971,000 in the month stoppages began, and rose again to more than £1.2m in March 2025.

The council said that it had always utilised agency staff to provide contingency cover for leave, sickness and to cover vacancies in waste and the more than £2m spent on agency staff in January 2026 included “increased fly-tipping clearance crews, grounds maintenance and Christmas bank holiday payments.”