As some of the county’s bin workers enter their second week of strike action, it has emerged their union bosses are in conflict with their own employees over pay, sparking accusations of hypocrisy.

Collectors and drivers in Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay walked out last week, with the GMB members demanding £16.50 per hour for drivers and an hourly rate of £13.15 for all other staff.

However, the union has been accused by a long-time member of “preaching one thing and practising another” over the treatment of its own workers’ pay demands.

KentOnline has learned GMB staff voted to refuse a pay offer from the union which would see a £15 an hour minimum wage come into effect from January 2024.

The GMB source, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “It’s hypocrisy for the union to submit these pay claims to Canterbury City Council, when the union itself is paying its own staff just over £13 per hour.”

The member claimed the union has previously made commitments to a £15 minimum wage internally but it was never implemented leaving GMB members sceptical the new offer would be honoured.

The source said this led to them rejecting the latest offer.

“They have always just kicked that one into the long grass and never tried to meet it,” he said.

“If they had been serious about it they would have their staff on £15 an hour by now.”

Staff were presented with a deal which would see them get a £1,000 one-off bonus, but sacrifice their Christmas bonus for this year.

GMB did not respond to questions asked by this publication and the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about the member’s claims previous offers had not been honoured.

The union represents about 25% of the Canenco workforce – the council-owned waste collection company – but most of its members hold critical jobs like drivers.

People who work for the GMB are represented through a National Negotiating Council (NNC), and another trade union, Unite.

In documents shared with the LDRS, the NNC and Unite say that “GMB wages have had real term pay cuts of between 14.1% and 15.9% since 2018” using GMB’s own price converter tool.

The union’s lowest paid staff are on £13.19 an hour.

“It demoralises those staff that you rely on to work for and build the union; the staff within the GMB nationally, the whole of the workforce are massively demoralised,” the member said.

“The hypocritical thing is that you’re demanding from employers and from taxpayers and councils this minimum of £15 and you’re refusing to pay it to your own staff who are now balloting for industrial action.”

GMB’s negotiations with the National Joint Council (NJC) this year - which sets pay for local government and school staff around the country - demanded a move to a £15 minimum wage within two years.

The demand was rejected by the NJC.

The union is also involved in the Fight for Fifteen campaign, which calls for £15 an hour for Amazon workers and care workers.

The member argued the union is using high pay claims such as those submitted to Canterbury City Council (CCC) and other Kent authorities to “poach” workers from other unions.

“The whole purpose of the exercise of putting in such high claims to the council is making false promises that effectively can’t be delivered, but the purpose is to fill the union ranks with more members, to get more people to join,” he added.

“They should not be misleading members about that.

“That will work in the short term but beyond that there is no strategy for representation and organisation and building.”

The practice of using industrial action to encourage workers to leave one union to join another is in violation of the Trades Union Congress’ rules.

UNISON, not GMB, is the recognised union for employees of CCC and Canenco.

A GMB spokesperson said: "GMB's latest pay offer for staff included a commitment to pay a minimum of £15 per hour for the lowest paid staff.

"GMB staff members rejected the offer.

"Talks are ongoing, and we are hopeful of an amicable settlement."

A spokesperson for Unite - which represents GMB staff - told the LDRS it is in negotiations with the GMB over pay.

In the past several months, bin collection services around Kent have faced the threat of strikes from workers with the GMB.

A joint strike across Dover district and Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s waste collector Veolia was averted last month after the union secured raises of between 11% and 21% for staff.

In May a possible strike in Thanet was called off by the union to allow negotiations to continue.

GMB represents more than 560,000 workers in the UK.