Birmingham City Council has been drawn into a fresh row after agency bin-lorry drivers discovered a “league table” showing individual performance data pinned up in a staff room at the Smithfield depot. The table reportedly used tachograph readings — including driving time, distance and alleged infringements — and listed named drivers, prompting accusations from the union that the information was being used to publicly shame staff.
Unite the Union, which represents many refuse workers, said the public display was a “bullying tactic” and a serious breach of data-protection rules. In a letter to the council, Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said: “This is information that should be confidential, not available for public viewing and certainly not used for the purpose of publicly shaming employees.”
The union has warned the council that the publication could contravene the General Data Protection Regulation and said affected agency workers would begin strike action in late November/early December in protest.
Birmingham City Council has pushed back against allegations of bullying, saying the notice was intended to set out “ongoing service improvements” and that it had been removed once concerns were raised. A council spokesperson said: “We strongly refute allegations of bullying. The purpose of the communication was about ongoing service improvements but we acknowledge that names should not have been published and the notice has been removed.”
The council added that an overview of key performance indicators would continue to be shared to drive improvement and that, following an internal review, it did not meet the threshold for notification to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Job&Talent, the agency whose staff were named in the table, told trade titles it had no role in creating or posting the list and said it “prioritises the rights, welfare and safety of our workers”. The agency also denied any involvement in blacklisting and said it takes allegations of worker welfare “extremely seriously”. The split in responsibility — with the council operating services through multiple contractors and agencies — has complicated efforts to resolve the dispute quickly
The row comes against a backdrop of prolonged industrial unrest in Birmingham’s waste service. Residents and local politicians have grown frustrated during periods of strike action when collections were disrupted, but unions argue that job security, pay cuts and the use of agency labour are the root causes.
Publicly displaying individual driving data raises additional issues beyond labour relations: safety (tachograph data is used to monitor legal driving hours), confidentiality, the scope of performance management and the dignity of workers doing hazardous frontline work
What the council and unions could do next
- Independent review — an external audit of how personal data is handled would help settle whether the display breached GDPR and whether disciplinary or remedial steps are needed.
- Clear data-use policy — a written, jointly agreed policy on what performance data may be shared, with whom and in what format (anonymised KPIs v named lists).
- Joint working group — representatives from the council, agencies and Unite could agree a transparency framework that protects workers and helps improve service delivery.
- Staff training — on data protection, fair performance management and respectful communications to prevent escalation.
Performance transparency can drive improvement — but when that transparency names individuals and is visible to all staff, it risks being perceived as punitive rather than developmental. In a sensitive industrial dispute, even operational notices can be read through a political lens. For Birmingham, where public patience has already been tested by rubbish backlogs and repeated strikes, rebuilding trust with refuse crews and agency workers will be as important as any operational tweak.
