Industrial Action

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.

The council’s policy should say how long it will take to respond. Our Complaint Handling Code says councils should have no more than two stages in a complaint process. The longest a complaint should take is 16 weeks.

The council should provide you with updates on your complaint, including when it may take longer to respond.

If your complaint is not making any progress, you can follow our top tips for making a complaint to find out what is happening.

If you complained more than 16 weeks ago, and you have not received a final response, we may be able to make enquiries about what is happening to your complaint. You should have tried to ask the council what is happening before contacting us about any delay.

If the council has sent you a final response (usually saying something like ‘this is our final response’) and you are unhappy with the outcome, you can complain to us.

You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.

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

We declined to investigate these complaints about missed refuse collections during a period of industrial action because we decided the issue was one which affected ‘all or most’ of the people in the council’s area.  We also noted that disruptions in refuse collections did not automatically entitle residents to a refund of council tax, which remains payable regardless of whether the services are carried out and used or not.
Industrial action at a school in the council’s area contributed to a shortfall in the special educational provision provided to the complainant’s son. We investigated the complaint because the circumstances were specific to the complaint and did not affect ‘all or most’ of the people in the council’s area.  We found it remained the council’s responsibility to ensure the child received the provision set out in their Education, Health and Care Plan and recommended a payment to remedy the injustice this caused the complainant and her son.
The council’s parking enforcement service was affected by industrial strike action by its civil enforcement officers. We recognised residents may have been frustrated by the lack of enforcement but did not consider the issue had caused the complainant significant injustice. Parking enforcement is a discretionary service and although the complainant contributed to the cost through the cost of his annual parking permit, this provided no guarantee that all cars parked without a permit would be removed or issued with a penalty charge notice.

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.

We provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result we aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.

August 2024

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