YORK householders whose rubbish is collected on Wednesdays look set to lose out again when the next council workers' strike is staged.

The second of the 24-hour strikes in pursuit of a pay claim is once again scheduled to take place on a Wednesday - August 14.

About 16,000 households and businesses were affected during the first strike earlier this month, and some of those affected have complained it was unfair for them to suffer the inconvenience alone.

Elizabeth Davies, 75, who lives at Lambert Court, a complex for the elderly in Buckingham Street, said she believed she was getting the brunt of the industrial action just because her rubbish collection day fell on a Wednesday. She said: "If they are going to have a strike and give warning the council should do the decent thing and do a new rota."

City of York Council has been investigating the possibility of switching collections during the next strike week, so that the same 16,000 properties would not suffer a second time.

A different section of properties whose rubbish is normally collected on a different day would suffer instead.

But a council spokesman said it now looked highly unlikely that this would be possible because of a number of practical difficulties, including communicating with the many thousands of property owners to let them know the new arrangements.

However, he stressed that the arrangements for the next strike were still being discussed, and a key meeting would take place today.

Unison spokesman Dave Bonner said he felt rounds should be switched. "It's totally unfair that the same group of households should be affected again. I think it would be practicable," he said.

A council spokeswoman said a number of other issues would also be examined at a series of management meetings over the next week.

One of these would be whether any collections could be made on the day of the strike. Another would be whether the authority should again organise an extra collection on the weekend after the strike.

Updated: 11:48 Wednesday, July 31, 2002