The company's corporate affairs manager Luke Schepen said the company had applied to the Fair Work Commission for orders to stop the industrial action, as it believed the strike did not comply with the requirements on the Fair Work Act.

It comes as ACT unions were warning the ACT Government and Sita Australia that only one day remained to prevent the strike action from beginning on Wednesday.

Transport Workers Union secretary Klaus Pinkas, who represents the garbage collectors, said a resolution to the dispute seemed unlikely given there had been no communication since last week.

“I haven’t heard anything from Sita Australia since we emailed them on Wednesday with a notification we would commence industrial action on Wednesday and Thursday this week,” he said.

"The silence from Sita has been deafening."

As it stands, large sections of Belconnen and Gungahlin will go without recycling and garbage collection services on those days.

Mr Pinkas said workers were $100 to $150 worse off each week under the new arrangement, which took effect when Sita took over the garbage collection contract in October last year, although he admitted the changes were "complicated”.

“At the end of the day, the guys just care what their payslip says at the end of the week,” he said.

Mr Schepen said the Transport Worker's Union's claim that drivers were working the same hours for less money was false.

"We pay them wage rates that are the same, overtime rates that are the same and allowances that are the same or greater that they used to receive," he said.

"To date the only evidence we have been provided with is anecdotal and clearly does not relate to an apples and apples comparison in relation to the number of hours worked.

"The four-day work week that the TWU is seeking has no other purpose than to increase take home pay and will limit productivity improvements and adversely impact the efficient rostering of services for the residents of the ACT."

Meanwhile in preparation for the strike, Territory and Municipal Services has agreed to waive the fee to drop off household waste (such as bags of rubbish or bins on trailers) at the Mitchell and Mugga Resource Management Centres on any day of industrial action.

The opening hours at the two centres will be extended to 6pm while regional drop-off centres will remain open 24 hours a day.

Those facing genuine hardship or requiring emergency waste collection are able to discuss alternative collection arrangements with Canberra Connect at www.canberraconnect.act.gov.au or on 13 22 81.

But despite the lack of communication between the two parties, Mr Pinkas said there was still time to avoid industrial action should Sita reopen negotiations with the union.

“They can come back to us at any time with a reasonable offer or plans to sit down and talk and we’ll review our action, even after strike action has been commenced,” he said.

“It’s a pity it’s come to this as the guys have been extremely patient over the nine months.”

Unions ACT secretary Kim Sattler said Tuesday had become the default deadline for Sita Australia to relaunch negotiations and ensure garbage was collected as usual.

“This negotiation process has been going on for nine months so it’s not a case of these workers suddenly taking action out of the blue,” she said.

Mr Pinkas said the origins of the planned strike action were an October change of contract for curbside collection.

He said the union had received assurances from ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, Industrial Relations Minister Simon Corbell, and Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury during the renegotiation that garbage collectors' pay and conditions would not be worse off under the new contract.

Mr Rattenbury said on Wednesday that talk of a three-week strike - which occurred during the 1980s - was premature at this stage of the negotiations.

Mr Rattenbury appointed an external industrial relations expert with a background in union movements to "objectively sit down with all pay and conditions and come up with a finding".

"The findings of that independent expert was that drivers had commensurate pay and conditions as they did under the previous arrangement," he said.

Ms Sattler said Unions ACT executives met last week and resolved to support the TWU members in their strike action against Sita Australia.

“People deserve to have secure jobs,” she said. “We are not in an economic crisis in Australia and fair pay and conditions are a standard that we all expect to have.”

Suburbs expected to be affected by the strike action are Amaroo, Bonner, Cook, Crace, Dunlop, Forde, Gungahlin, Hawker, Higgins, Holt, Jacka, Latham, Macgregor, Macquarie, Moncrieff, Ngunnawal, Palmerston, Scullin and Weetangara.

A number of suburbs will also miss out on just their garbage collections next week, including Aranda, Belconnen, Bruce, Casey, Charnwood, Dunlop, Evatt, Florey, Flynn, Fraser, Fyshwick, Giralang, Hall, Kaleen, Lawson, McKellar, Melba, Nicholls, North Lyneham, Page and Spence.