WM agrees to $83K settlement for missed pickups in Kitsap County, Washington

Houston-based WM has agreed to an $83,150 settlement for missed yard waste and recycling pickups in Kitsap County, Washington, during the summer and fall of 2021.

According to WM, these missed pickups were largely because of a shortage of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the settlement, the company will offer credits worth $34,658.63 to residential recycling and yard waste customers who experienced missed pickups between July 1, 2021, and Dec. 3, 2021. This is in addition to more than $448,000 worth of credits it offered to Kitsap County residential customers for collections missed from July to December as a result of its driver shortage, reports the Kitsap Sun.

The agreement—which has been signed onto by WM executives, an attorney in the state Attorney General’s Office, a senior Kitsap County prosecuting officer and Kitsap County commissioners—is subject to the approval of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC).

According to the Kitsap Sun, UTC staff found 16,630 violations of state laws and rules for missed recycling and yard waste pickups from July to August 2021. It was determined that 3,810 yard waste collections were missed in July and 12,820 recycling collections were missed in August. The penalties of $83,150 were based on $5 per missed pickup.

Although WM claims these missed pickups were because of staffing shortages, UTC determined the driver shortage was not an approved reason for missed service.

As part of the settlement, WM must submit a contingency plan “outlining a process to maintain sufficient staffing levels and steps it will take to quickly restore service should there be a worker shortage in the future.” It must also develop a statewide communication and customer outreach plan to improve customer communication during major service disruptions in the company’s UTC service areas.

Gary Chittim, WM communications manager, told the Kitsap Sun the company "took an aggressive approach to address the driver shortage in Kitsap County," including hiring new drivers with signing bonuses and increasing wages.

"Our new drivers are now trained and on the job, serving our community," he says, adding that the company was able to achieve adequate staffing levels in early December.