A bonus payment of £1,000 is being offered to recruits to tackle a shortage of lorry drivers.
The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP), which oversees waste collection in the county, is offering the one-off payment as an incentive.
Collections have been disrupted over the summer with staff having to self-isolate due to Covid ping alerts.
SWP’s managing director Mickey Green says loaders are also being retrained as drivers.
“There’s a shortage of 100,000 drivers nationally and that is not going to disappear overnight, it’s a really challenging labour market,” he says.
“We’ve got a lot of people in but we need to do more, and this is another incentive.”
The £1,000 bonus will be paid once drivers have completed a probationary period.
Current staff, who Mr Green described as being “among the heroes of lockdown,” are also being paid weekly performance bonuses.
Mr Green says of the bonuses: “We think it will help, but there’s no silver bullet to this. We’re still in a difficult situation, harder than any of us have ever known.”
Garden waste services have been suspended in Somerset but are due to return in September.
“I think we’re starting to get there, but I don’t want to predict or promise something that doesn’t come true.”
“I want to reassure people that we are doing everything we can to get collections back on track.”
