Category: Solidarity
Payroll issues, Accident reporting, PPE for our depot members
Payroll issues
The Cost Of Living Crisis is getting worse. We want to make sure all our members are getting paid correctly.
Accidents at Work.
Unfortunately, accidents happen at work. It is REALLY important that our members report the accidents. Your supervisor must take details from you and record the incident on the Councils Accident/Injury system.
If you are injured whilst carrying out your job this is called industrial injury. This means that if you are off sick you don’t need to worry about your pay running out.
If you are having a problem reporting your accident, please contact your UNISON rep immediately.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Your employer must provide this to you by law. If you need new PPE speak to your supervisor. If you are experiencing problems obtaining PPE please contact your UNISON rep.
PPE is there to protect you.
To view our flyer click on the link below.
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The Tories Are Out Of Barnet!
To quote CeCe Peniston: “Finally!” (For those of us young enough to remember popular music of the 90s) https://youtu.be/xk8mm1Qmt-Y
On behalf of our members our Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary, John Burgess, has written to the newly elected Council Leader, Barry Rawlings, congratulating him on the success of the Labour Party and requesting to meet with him.
This is John making a statement to all Barnet UNISON members
For 20 years our members have had to deal with brutality of outsourcing and attacks on our time off to represent members. Our members in the Barnet Group, Capita, NSL, BELS and ISS will be expecting to see positive change for them. UNISON’s General Secretary, Christine McAnea has also been written to requesting her support for assistance in our discussions with Barnet Labour.
We’ll be providing regular updates to our members and our wider UNISON family and trade union community on our progress.
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Join Cost of Living Crisis Meeting Tues 26 April 6 pm
Join the Barnet UNISON Cost of Living Crisis meeting by clicking link below
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85746035877?pwd=NFoxQWpVelZVVEVac0J4VTZpc2tuUT09
Meeting ID: 857 4603 5877
Passcode: 801 103
Cost of Living Crisis: London Weighting is not what it used to be!
Barnet Council grades include an element of London Weighting just like all the other London Councils.
However, times are very different. The Cost-of-Living Crisis has fundamentally changed things and now is the time for Barnet UNISON to step up.
Living and working in London is expensive. If you don’t believe me read this.
Higher living costs in London
“It has been shown that it costs at least 20% more to achieve a decent standard of living in London, compared to the rest of the UK, and in some cases it can be as high as 50%. This is mainly due to the high costs of housing, transport and childcare.*
The Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University has recently looked deeply into whether the London weighting system goes far enough. In research funded by the charity Trust for London, they showed that the London Weighting needs to be about £7,700 per year in Inner London and over £6,200 in Outer London to cover the additional minimum cost of living in the capital.”
(Source: https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/publications/london-weighting-and-london-costs-fresh-approach/ )
To find out more join the Barnet Cost of Living Crisis UNISON meeting is on Tuesday 26 April 2022 at 6 pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85746035877?pwd=NFoxQWpVelZVVEVac0J4VTZpc2tuUT09
Meeting ID: 857 4603 5877
Passcode: 801 103
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Cost of Living Crisis meeting 26 April 2022
Emergency Cost of Living facts
Don’t let anyone tell you there is no money
- UK Big Six energy firms made more than £1bn in profit
- £40bn profits for BP and Shell
- Petrol and diesel prices are the highest ever and it’s likely to get higher
- The worst financial squeeze in 60 years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
- Food prices rising
- Food banks usage increasing
- Rent rises, council tax increases, mortgages rising, water bills increasing.
All of this and yet
- MPs are getting a £2,200 pay rise when most of our members are only getting 1.75%
- The Government gave £37 billion for the Covid Test and Trace.
- The Government were handing out million-pound contracts to their mates during the pandemic
- Finally, the Government worked from home whilst many of our frontline members had to go into work without a vaccine in order to keep public services running.
- And let’s not forget the wine and cheese parties they were having when all of our members were risking their lives keeping public services running on poverty wages.
National Pay Bargaining
Negotiations have started for the National Pay campaign. More news on the campaign will be shared with members.
BUT Barnet UNISON believes we can’t wait, we need to act now.
But we need a Barnet UNISON Cost of Living Crisis Pay claim now.
Barnet UNISON will shortly be starting negotiations with the employer on some changes to Unified Reward Terms and Conditions. It is important that members attend our UNISON meetings on the negotiations.
The next Barnet UNISON Cost of Living Crisis meeting is taking place on Tuesday 26 April 6- 7 pm.
Please see details below for joining the meeting.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85746035877?pwd=NFoxQWpVelZVVEVac0J4VTZpc2tuUT09
Meeting ID: 857 4603 5877
Passcode: 801 103
Election Time: “Who has the back of Barnet UNISON members?”
As we approach Council elections, our members are asking if there will be a political change here at Barnet Council and if so, what it would mean for them.
It is now 20 years since Labour handed back power to the Tories in Barnet Council. Back then it was a very different time, and the Tories were not keen on outsourcing. They appeared to enjoy running the services themselves.
Things changed around 2008.
This is when easyCouncil was presented as the future for delivering Council services. This approach was promoted by a succession of consultants who were richly rewarded with lucrative contracts. It would be fair to say Barnet Council was “consultant dependent”, no decisions could be made without first paying a consultant 100’s of thousands of pounds of public money.
“The One Barnet Consultant’s bill hits £6.3 million” http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-one-barnet-consultants-bill-hits-63.html
Easycouncil became One Barnet, which enabled the mass outsourcing sausage machine to churn out report after report, all extolling the virtues of outsourcing and undermining the hard work of the in-house staff.
Fast forward 14 years and there appears to be growing anger towards the Government over the alleged breaches of Covid rules at its heart. There is even speculation that previously safe Tory Councils could be at risk.
If there was political change in Barnet would it be a Labour or Lib- Labour Coalition?
And if so what would that mean for our outsourced members all of whom are desperate to return back under direct management of Barnet Council?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for NSL the Parking Services contractor?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for Capita and the two contracts?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for the Catering Contractor ISS?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for Barnet Education Learning Skills (BELS)?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for Housing workers working for Barnet Homes?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for 600 care workers working for Your Choice Barnet?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for the cleaning contractor Norse?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for the security contractor Blue Nine?
All the above services used to be provided by Barnet Council and many of the outsourced services are frontline services run by key workers clapped as heroes during the pandemic.
UNISON policy is for all these services to be run in-house and that they will publicly support Barnet UNISON to try to campaign to bring these services back under direct control of the Council.
The other big concern for Council workers and the low paid is PAY.
The National Pay Campaign was a failure and whilst UNISON begins the work to address the massive deficit between the union and its membership nationally what does this mean now?
Our low paid members are facing serious financial hardship and do not have the luxury of waiting for another national pay campaign.
What is low pay in our depot based Street Scene Services ?
A Street Cleansing operative earns between £11.31 to £12.03 and hour annual salary £22,575
A Bin worker loader or a Gardener earns between £11.82 to £12.47 and hour annual salary £ 23,400
A Passenger Transport Driver, Gardener Driver, Town Keeper earns between £12.24 to £12.91 and hour annual salary £24,245
A coach escort, skilled gardener driver, tractor driver earns between £12.69 to £13.39 and hour annual salary £25,128
A LGV driver operative, LGV Tractor drive earns between £13.15 to £14.12 and hour annual salary £26,508
A Bin worker driver earns between £14.12 to £15.72 and hour annual salary £29,502
Barnet UNISON had its first Emergency Cost of Living Crisis meeting on 30 March 2022. The meeting agreed to progress the claim and bring the full proposal to a vote of the second Cost of Living Crisis meeting on Tuesday 26 April at 6 pm.
What will a change in political leadership mean for our low paid Barnet UNISON members working for Barnet Council?
The question on the lips of these workers is which political party will publicly join UNISON in advocating the return of outsourced services back into Barnet Council and to meet to discuss how to end pay poverty for low paid workers?
End.
Breaking News: Barnet Homes ASSIST Strike – VICTORY!
Credit: Anne-Marie Sanderson
Barnet Homes Assist plays the role of a fourth emergency service. They respond to the most vulnerable in our Barnet community, visiting clients in their homes or alerting the other emergency services after being alerted by an alarm call from a client.
The Barnet Group brought forward proposals just before Christmas to outsource or close this vital lifeline which serves 5,000 Barnet residents by the 1st of April 2022, all for the want of a budget shortfall of £160k.
Members requested a ballot for industrial action.
The ballot closed on the 16th of March.
77% of Assist UNISON members returned the ballot on time with 100% voting to take industrial action to ‘Save Assist’ and oppose the outsourcing or closure of this vital service.
“The Barnet Group has listened and has made a commitment to look at other ways in which the service can become financially viable in the long term such as investment in new technology to allow Assist to bid for more contracts. This has gone some way to allay the fears of the dedicated staff who work at Assist and the vulnerable clients they serve. Talks are ongoing with the staff and Barnet UNISON about the future for the Assist service. But what is clear that Barnet UNISON members in the Barnet Group or in Barnet Council will stand together to fight against any proposal to outsource Public Services.” Patrick Hunter, Barnet Homes Convenor.
“UNISON members at ASSIST were and are prepared to fight against outsourcing of this vital frontline service that serves the most vulnerable residents in our community – we clapped for them during the pandemic – and I applaud them now, heroes, every last one of them.’’ Helen Davies, Branch Chair Barnet UNISON.
“Massive respect to our Barnet UNISON emergency response key worker members who work for the ASSIST service. They voted (100%) to take strike action with a 77% turnout in response to their employer seeking to outsource them. Today’s response from the employer that they are no longer pursuing outsourcing is welcome news. We are shortly to have fresh talks over the future for the service.” John Burgess Branch Secretary Barnet UNISON.
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Note to Editors: Contact details: Helen Davies Barnet UNISON on or 020 8359 2088 or email: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk
Background:
UNISON Official Ballot is on for “ASSIST” Workers to take Strike Action
Barnet UNISON, Response to Barnet Homes ASSIST Proposals, 17/01/22
Emergency Cost of Living meeting video 30 March
Emergency Cost of Living Crisis meeting
Dear members
The Cost Of Living Crisis is real and it we need a plan to defend and support our members.
- UK Big Six energy firms made more than £1bn in profit
- £40bn profits for BP and Shell
- Petrol and diesel prices are the highest ever and it’s likely to get higher
- The worst financial squeeze in 60 years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
- Food prices rising
- Food banks usage increasing
- Rent rises, council tax increases, mortgages rising, water bills increasing.
All of this and yet
- MPs are getting a £2,200 pay rise when most of our members are only getting 1.75%
- The Government gave £37 billion for the Covid Test and Trace.
- The Government were handing out million-pound contracts to their mates during the pandemic
- Finally, the Government worked from home whilst many of our frontline members had to go into work without a vaccine in order to keep public services running.
- And let’s not forget the wine and cheese parties.
Barnet UNISON is calling a meeting of all of our members to listen to our members and discuss and agree a plan of action.
We want to hear real live experiences from our members.
- What is worrying you?
- What do you think your employer should be doing to help you?
The meeting is on Wednesday 30 March from 6- 7pm
Please see details for joining the meeting below.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85415771085?pwd=aWVmVEdTcHdaT2hHa3BPZzV4UEQ0dz09
Meeting ID: 854 1577 1085
Passcode: 876061
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Barnet UNISON