This factsheet is aimed primarily at people who have suffered a loss of service because of industrial (strike) action and who are thinking about making a complaint to us, or who have already registered a complaint.

What is industrial action?

For the purposes of this factsheet, we have used the term ‘industrial action’ to refer to workers going on strike due to disputes with their employer.

Strikes can stop councils providing certain services.  Employees, usually represented by a trade union, may decide to strike and in such cases, councils may be unable to provide certain services.  We have seen this most often in refuse, recycling and ‘green’ garden waste collections at several councils.  However, a council’s duties vary depending on the type of service being provided. 

How do I complain?

• You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
• Then, if you are unhappy with the final outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
• Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.

Will you investigate my complaint about services affected by strike action?

We consider every complaint individually, looking at its particular circumstances. We cannot therefore say if we will investigate a complaint until we look at it in more detail. Once a case is allocated to an Assessment Investigator, they will review the information you provided and decide if your complaint is about a matter we can and should investigate.

The law (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended) says we shall not investigate complaints about matters we decide affect ‘all or most’ of the people in a council’s area.  If this restriction applies in your case, we cannot investigate.  But if we decide the issue you have raised affects only some residents, or that you have suffered significantly more than most people affected by the issue, we may decide to investigate further.

We cannot however become involved in the rights and wrongs of strikes or force councils (or their employees/contractors) to end them. We will not recommend councils refund council tax contributions for services missed because of strikes and nor will we tell a council to use staff from those service areas which are not affected by strikes to those which are. This is because council tax payments are not conditional on the provision of services, and we have no power to tell the council how to use its staff.

What happens if the Ombudsman finds the Council was at fault?

If we decide to investigate your complaint and if we find fault in the Council’s actions, we will consider the impact this had on you. Which we refer to as ‘injustice’.  If we decide any fault by the Council caused you significant injustice, we may recommend a remedy.  Where possible, we recommend action to put you back in the position you would have been, had the fault not occurred.  Where this is not possible, we may recommend a symbolic payment for significant distress and inconvenience caused.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.