The potential Chesterfield bin strike has been by workers at Veolia Environmental Services has been averted after staff voted to accept a 7.5% pay rise.

Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, who had met with representatives from GMB and the senior management at Veolia last week to discuss the dispute, has welcomed the agreement.

Toby said, “These strikes would have caused a great deal of disruption for the town and I am glad that they have been averted. I want to thank both the GMB Union and Veolia for meeting with me to discuss my concerns and congratulate both sides for working together to ensure that workers get a reasonable pay rise which is very much needed right now.

The pay rise of around 7% will mean an average increase of around £2 per hour for Veolia workers and will be backdated to 1^st April 2022.

Toby added, “This wage rise is fair, but with inflation continuing to escalate, we should remember that even this will leave working people worse off than they were a year ago. Whilst I understand the call to ensure that wage rises don’t provide further fuel to increases in inflation, lower paid workers simply can’t afford to see further erosions in their  real terms incomes.