STREET cleaners have voted to ballot for strike action over staff cuts, which they claim have left them unable to finish their rounds.

Disgruntled employees of Kier Street Services say their workload has tripled after agency staff were laid off.

Following a meeting with union officials, street cleaners will hold a preliminary ballot, which will be followed by a full ballot for strike action in the next two weeks.

A union source said: “This is going to take place right away. Our regional union officers are going to go away and do the ballot papers and start the process.”

He added that the meeting was attended by just 25 of the 140 street cleaners in the borough.

The source said: “It wasn’t really a great turn out but the feedback that we're getting is that management put pressure on them not to attend.”

He also claimed that no Kier worker had ever managed to finish their “beat” as they did not have enough time and the workload was too high.

As a result, up to 150 notices were being served to Kier to improve substandard work on a daily basis, he said.

The notices, issued by the council, carry a £50 punitive deduction if work is not brought up to standard within 24 hours.

He also repeated claims that staff were being shortchanged by as much as £1,000 in their monthly pay packet, denying Kier’s claims that the cause was late timesheets.

He said: “I would like to make it very clear that we do not have timesheets.

“Kier, as a company, don’t believe in wasting paper.

“The management have an electronic version of our timesheets but we don't get to see that – it goes straight to head office."

But Kier has again claimed some of the workers were at fault as they "failed to submit timesheets for overtime according to procedure".

A spokeswoman said: "Kier has not been advised of any industrial action in line with the relevant code of practice.

"However, Kier would expect any complaints or issues regarding current workforce relations to be notified to management in the first instance by unions or staff.

"No such formal complaints or issues have been notified to Kier."

Kier also stated it had received fewer than five rectification notices a week during April.

The spokeswoman added: "There is no problem with completed work and many operatives have remarked on the improvements made to service delivery."

The company also said staff were not prevented from attending the union meeting and continues to deny lateness or shortfalls in pay.

Many residents were angry about the quality of service provided by Kier when they took over the street cleaning contract in June 2008.