Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about industrial action affecting the Council’s refuse collection services. This is because the issue did not cause Mr X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains industrial action by the Council’s refuse collection crews have left the area looking unsightly. He also complains there have been infestations of rats due to the failure to collect residents’ household waste.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. From time to time councils may be affected by industrial strike action by its employees or contractors. It is not for us to comment on the rights and wrongs of such action and we cannot say councils must give in to the demands of those who choose to strike.
7. We also do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
8. While I appreciate Mr X is concerned for his family, the strikes do not significantly or personally affect him. Any injustice Mr X has from visiting the area, including to help his family dispose of their waste, does not warrant investigation.
9. But even if Mr X was to complain on his family’s behalf we would not investigate. This is because any complaint about the strikes themselves falls outside our jurisdiction. The strikes are an issue which affected ‘all or most’ of the people in the Council’s area and it is therefore caught by the exclusion set out at Paragraph 4.
10. In any event, the dispute between the Council and its employees has now ended. The unions have confirmed further strike action has been called off and that there are no new strikes planned. The issue is therefore resolved and it is unlikely further investigation would achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X or his family.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the actions Mr X complains about did not cause him significant injustice. They also fall outside our jurisdiction to investigate as they affected ‘all or most’ of the people in the Council’s area.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman