A stomach-curdling video of dead rats floating in a bin has been published to underline the working conditions refuse workers have to deal with.
The footage, taken yesterday, shows more than half a dozen dead rats inside the bin in Glasgow as council workers carried out waste disposal.
Trade union GMB has said the clip shows the working conditions staff face as they urged the council to stop funding cuts, the Daily Record reported.
The video has been picked up by the likes of GMB Scotland Organiser David Hume, who has argued recent changes to bin collection schedules has left the city with a rubbish issue.
He said: “This is another shameful example of Glasgow’s waste crisis and let’s be clear it’s a crisis that’s verging on a catastrophe.
“The council’s decision to press ahead with three weekly collections across the city is madness, and it’s attempts to mask these cuts under the banner of environmentalism is contemptible.
“You cannot cut your way out of a crisis, you must invest, and with the challenges on settling residual equal pay claims and replacing the discriminatory job evaluation system still outstanding, it’s increasingly clear the council cannot resolve this alone.
“Susan Aitken should do the right thing and pick up the phone to the Scottish and UK Governments and ask for the intervention and investment Glasgow desperately needs”
Branch 40 convener Chris Mitchell said the dank, watery tomb highlighted the "waste crisis" being endured in the city.
He also said an offered pay increase of between 1 and 2% for workers from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) was not enough following a year and a half of pandemic.
"Key worker, essential worker and critical worker," Chris says in the video.
"That is what the Scottish Government referred to cleansing workers as.
"It was a necessity you come into work. Communities couldn’t thrive without you. And due to the nature of your job, you are a statutory requirement.
"You stop diseases from spreading. Things like rats and other vermin.
"But again that doesn’t reflect on the recent pay rise from COSLA, it's nothing but an insult.
"We are urging the Scottish Government and COSLA to get back around the table with the unions and give us a better offer that we deserve.
"In Glasgow and throughout Scotland we are still facing horrendous cuts in the public sector."
Gary Smith, newly-elected general secretary of the GMB in Scotland, has previously criticised Glasgow for being "filthy."
He said: "Glasgow has suffered huge cuts to public spending, the streets are filthy, the infrastructure is crumbling, the public realm is in a terrible state of decay.
“Working class communities around Glasgow have been absolutely abandoned by the [ SNP -run] council.”
A spokesman for the council said the issue followed pest control work carried out by the local housing association.
“Our staff have not flagged up a rat issue at these properties, which is what they are expected to do for their own safety," they said.
“We empty the bins every four days at these properties and in our experience the bin courts are kept in good order.
“How this specific incident came about is unclear. In our view this incident does not provide a basis for a useful discussion on the wider cleansing system in Glasgow.”
A Scottish Government Spokesperson said: “We are very grateful to all key workers who have helped to maintain essential services across Scotland throughout the pandemic.
“It is the responsibility of individual councils to manage their own budgets and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.
“Glasgow City Council will receive a total funding package of almost £1.5 billion to support local services, which includes an extra £29.8 million to support vital day to day services, equivalent to an increase of 2.2 per cent compared to 2020-21.”
