Lisburn strike action set to be suspended from Thursday following revised pay offer

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had intervened in the employment dispute last week between council management and union members.

Picket lines were due to continue in the district until a ballot result on an earlier pay offer was to be known on October 28.

Major disruption had been caused in all areas of the local authority with the impact of uncollected rubbish clearly visible on the streets.

Senior Unite the Union representative, Nigel Gregg spoke to the local democracy service following ‘busy negotiations’ this morning.

He said: “A revised offer was presented to all three unions and all three have agreed to ballot their members within the same timeframe. As a response to the improved offer from the council, Unite has agreed to suspend the industrial action from 12.59pm on October 12, 2022 to allow the ballot to take place.

“Members will return to works as normal on Thursday morning. Further negotiations are ongoing regarding the clear up operation.”

LCCC has stated that any updates to the dispute will be announced on its website.

It comes after disruption to bin collections in the area had looked set to continue as workers considered a revised pay offer until the result of the ballot – which would not have been known until 28 October.

Members of the Unite union have been on strike since early September.

The council had previously said it was "disappointed" that the strike was not suspended pending the result.

But Unite said the pay offer was "flawed.”