London Living Wage to be implemented for Barnet Council staff

London Living Wage to be implemented for Barnet Council staff

In the same Barnet Press article it reports:

“Mr Cornelius also said that salaries of the remaining in-house employees would be brought up to the living wage, which in London is £8.55 an hour, £2.36 above the national minimum wage.”

This is a GOOD NEWS story for all workers working for Barnet and earning less than the Living Wage.

Four years ago our branch tried to convince the Council that staff working for private contractors (at this time it was cleaners) should be on the London Living Wage. UNISON took the matter to the then Leader of the Council Mike Freer. A promise was made to look into the issue but nothing was done. At the time no council staff were earning less than the London Living Wage.

But now, four years on nearly a thousand workers are earning less than the London Living Wage.

You can read the details in a report going to the Remuneration Committee on 14 October 2013 see HERE

This is clear evidence of how fast the cost of living crisis and freeze on pay has impacted on the lives of council workers. In the Council report it states

“3. CORPORATE PRIORITIES AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS

3.1. The Council believes that no-one should do a hard day’s work for less than they can live on, and that all our staff deserve to be paid at least the Living Wage. Council considers that if everyone in London on low pay were paid at least the living wage it could potentially save the government money by increasing the tax base and reducing spend on welfare benefits.

3.2. In addition, the Council believes that the added benefit to the Council of paying at least the living wage include increased productivity and lower staff turnover, which would reduce recruitment costs.”

It is our view that all employers who currently pay their staff below the London Living Wage should recognise the benefits and make plans to adopt the above statement.

Our branch will be writing to all of the employers delivering public services in Barnet to join Barnet Council implement the London Living Wage. We will be asking the Council to work with UNISON to ensure contractors for example cleaning service are all paid the London Living Wage.

If you have never heard about the London Living Wage and want to know more read here

UNISON respond to Council may be forced to outsource additional services, warns leader”

“Council may be forced to outsource additional services, warns leader”

(Barnet Press 3 October 2013)

“THE leader of Barnet Council says that the authority will continue to outsource and make funding cuts if the government continues to slash local authority budgets after the 2015 general election.” More here

On Tuesday 1 October  UNISON attended a meeting to discuss the One Barnet Programme. Some of our members may be aware that the programme was split into Wave One & Wave Two. The meeting formalised the closing of Wave One with the caveat that there would be a lessons learnt report produced with an opportunity for the trade unions to contribute. We were informed that Wave Two has already started which includes CCTV service, Registars Services, Mortuary Service all of which will no doubt be outsourced at some point in time.

The latest big project for Wave Two is the Education Service or what used be known as the Local Education Authority (LEA). This service has had some pretty vicious cuts in the past but has now been lumped together with all the services that have remained in Education in readiness for the One Barnet treatment.

I reported back to the meeting that staff already believe it is simply a matter of time before they are outsourced. Many workers in our Education service are already aware that Capita won the contract to deliver LEA services on behalf of Staffordshire County Council late last year. More recently Capita won another big contract in Swindon to deliver the following services: administrative support and reception-based duties on behalf of the Children’s Integrated Service Localities teams, which includes education welfare, youth engagement, health visiting support, targeted mental health services and educational psychology.

So, the news headline will not be a shock to anyone working for the Council. The Commissioning model does not tolerate in house service delivery. It doesn’t matter whether the service is high performing, low cost, value for money, the ‘die has been cast’ and outsourcing is the ‘only game in town’.

It is only right to point out Streetscene services have remained in-house. This weekend sees the return of the Recycling services from May Gurney. However a straw poll of members working down the deport would reveal that no one believes that this services will be still in-house once Mill Hill Depot is sold by December 2016

UNISON does not support ideological adherence to One Barnet outsourcing and will continue to support our members and public services in Barnet.

 

UNISON call on Capita to reverse mass redundancies in Barnet

Monday 7 October 2013

Dear Mark

Re: Capita Customer and Support Group (CSG) Redundancy consultation

I am writing to you in your role as Partnership Director, Capita which I understands covers both contracts with Barnet Council. I am taking this unusual step to make a direct plea to you and your senior management team to pause and consider if there is a possibility that the proposals which will be set out to staff and the trade unions today can be changed.

I have made it my business to study Capita Plc and there can be no doubt that your organisation continues to enjoy massive financial success as you win contract after contract across the public sector. In an article I read earlier this week in the Guardian it stated “Capita’s win rate is currently better than one in two.”

I know from other contracts Capita have won that there has been a commitment to deliver jobs in the local community. I recognise that this was not stipulated in the OJEU notice but the sheer size of job losses means it would be seriously negligent of UNISON not to try to engage your organisation in consultation about delivering a different service delivery model; one which would lead to maintaining and growing jobs in our community. Considering that already almost a third of the posts were vacant on the point of the transfer must provide financial opportunities to revise some of your proposals which would lead to more redundancies.

Today I along with a number of UNISON reps will be attending a number of Capita CSG service presentations to staff which will detail the Capita CSG transformation plan which unfortunately will mean redundancies for a large number of staff. This news will come as no surprise to staff as this outcome was made known last November 2012 once Capita was named as preferred bidder. In the TUPE consultations it became a little clearer as to where the redundancies would be made both through re-location and restructuring of services.

At some point today Capita will provide details of each transformation plan to the trade unions and begin a 90 day consultation. I have had an opportunity to study the Capita Transformation plan which sets out the plan to transfer & restructure services. Unless I have misunderstood the purposes by which Capita are consulting it has always been UNISON’s view that this is still a proposal. Indeed in the TUPE consultation it was pointed out to UNISON on a number of occasions that these were proposals and as such Capita could not enter into consultation until after transfer.

It is UNISON’s view that meaningful consultation must be undertaken at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage. It must include sufficient reasons for particular proposals to allow those consulted to give intelligent consideration and an intelligent response; adequate time must be given for this purpose; and the product of consultation must be conscientiously taken into account when the ultimate decision is taken. It is therefore our view that there is opportunity in the consultation period to be able to provide a considered response once we have all the facts which may impact on Capita’s final decision with regards the future for CSG services.

If this is not your understanding of the consultation process please can you let me know?

In the meantime please provide the following:

· The current CSG staffing establishment number including all filled & vacant posts

· A commitment that no CSG posts will be transferred to any of the proposed relocations before the end of consultation.

· A written response to UNISON’s request for CSG staff at risk of redundancy to be given access to vacant jobs within Barnet Council and Capita Plc.

· A copy of each of the proposed transformation plans for each of the services areas.

I look forward to hearing back from you in due course.

Yours sincerely

John Burgess

Branch Secretary Barnet UNISON

CC: Paul Pindar (Capita Chief Executive), Dave Prentis (UNISON General Secretary), Richard Cornelius (Leader, Barnet Council), Andrew Travers (Chief Executive, Barnet Council), UNISON members.

Barnet UNISON Press Release: “From hard working families to ‘scroungers’ – Capita redundancies

For Immediate Release: Monday 7 October 2013

Today Capita Plc announced it plans relocate Barnet Council services across the UK which will mean hundreds of jobs lost to the community of Barnet. The Capita proposal will seek to relocate services to Blackburn, Carlisle, Belfast and Sheffield to name but a few. Details of all the Capita relocations are contained within the recently released Capita contract and can be viewed here

Last November 2012 Capita Plc won this contract to deliver the following services Customer services; Finance; Human Resources; Procurement; Estates; Information Services; Revenue and Benefits; and Corporate Programmes. The transfer was supposed to take place on 1 April 2013, but was delayed due to the Judicial Review challenge made by Maria Nash, a Barnet resident.

Capita Plc took over control of the contract on 1 September 2013.

Over the next 90 days Capita Plc will be carrying out consultation with staff and trade unions. Details of their transformation plan can be found on the Council website here.

John Burgess, Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary, said: “We have all been dreading this day coming. Capita must have made a fortune already in terms of redundancy payment savings as a third of the work force have managed to escape to other councils in order to avoid being made redundant as their jobs are moved up north. I speak to staff working in these services on a daily basis I have known many of them for over ten years so it is going to be painful sitting in with them when the news is broken today. In the current economic climate I know our members are petrified of being made redundant. I wonder how long it will be before these hardworking staff are labelled as “scroungers”, soon to be unemployed simply because their jobs were exported out of London. Our branch is committed to trying to convince Capita to reconsider their proposals. Today we wrote to Capita asking them to work with staff and the trade unions to come up with a different solution which not only protects jobs in the community but looks to develop employment opportunities for residents in Barnet. ”

***** Ends *****

Notes to Editors. Contact details: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or 0208 359 2088 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

Links

1. Capita relocations of services can be found here http://www.barnet.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/3165/final_transformation_method_statement_mar2013_capita_redacted1pdf (see page 28 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013)

2. Capita CSG contract can be found here http://www.barnet.gov.uk/downloads/940431/customer_and_support_group_csg_formerly_nscso_contract

3. Barnet UNISON letter to Mark Wyllie Capita Partnership Director link here

 

Barnet Council publish Capita contract

On Thursday 19 September Barnet Council issued this Press Release here

Barnet UNISON welcomes the publication of the contract. It is a substantial set of reports which are now available for public scrutiny.

This contract does have significant implications for local jobs as this contract proposes to move jobs across the UK.

In order to aid to aid scrutiny we have listed the documents and hyperlinked each report back to the Council website.

We welcome contributions from our members on any of the documents contained within this document.

If you have any comments, observations please email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk.

List of Documents Relating NSCSO Contract

1        NSCSO Contract

1.1 Contract Overview

1.2 Contract Document

1.3 Contract Schedules

2        Output Specifications

2.1 Corporate Programmes

2.2 Customer Services

2.3 Estates

2.4 Finance

2.5 Human Resources

2.6 Information Systems

2.7 Procurement

2.8 Revenues and Benefit

3 Service Delivery Plans

3.1 Corporate Programmes Method Statement

3.2 Customer Services Method Statement

3.3 Estates Method Statement

3.4 Finance Method Statement

3.5 Human Resources Method Statement

3.6 Information Systems Method Statement

3.7 Procurement Method Statement

3.8 Revenues and Benefit Method Statement

3.9 Enterprise Wide Insight Method Statement

3.10 Schools Method Statement

3.11 Traded Services to Schools

3.12 Transformation Method Statement

3.13 Detailed Transformation Plan

3.14 Transition Method Statement

3.15 Transition Plan

4 Price and Performance Mechanism

4.1 Payment Mechanism

4.2 Payment Mechanism Appendices

5 Service Provider Commitments

5.1 Service Provider Schedule of Commitments

 

Barnet Homes UNISON recruitment days

Hi All,

A couple of dates for your diary…

RECRUITMENT DAYS

Wednesday October the 16th 12.30 to 1.30pm and Wednesday November the 20th 12.30 to 1.30pm

There will be a Recruitment stall outside Bhse so stop by and say ‘Hi’.

PLEASE

Encourage your colleagues who are non-members to join!!!

UNISON MEETING

Room 63 First Floor Bhse,  Wednesday the 20th of November 12 till 1pm

All Welcome!!!!

If you would like to get involved with these events or feel that you would like to take a more active role in YOUR UNION – Please let me know

Best Wishes,

Patrick

Patrick Hunter

UNISON Convenor for Barnet Homes

Barnet House, 1255 High Road, London N20 0EJ
Tel: 020 8359 4474 / 07943520836
patrick.hunter@barnetunison.org.uk

London Living Wage for Barnet Council staff.

London Living Wage for Barnet Council staff.

On Tuesday 10 September 2013 the Leader of Barnet Council was asked a question (see Number 27) about London Living Wage by Alison Moore Leader of the Labour Party.

“The last Council meeting agreed unanimously to bring forward proposals to pay all directly employed council staff at least London’s Living Wage if the One Barnet programme went ahead. Now that both One Barnet contracts have been signed, will the Leader bring forward a report to the next General Functions Committee or Cabinet meeting implementing London’s Living Wage for all directly employed staff that currently fall below £8.55 per hour?

Answer by Councillor Richard Cornelius

That will be too soon, but we will bring forward early proposals.”

UNISON has formally raised this as an important issue as we understand it would lead to an increase in pay for almost 900 staff and fully supports the Councils commitment to make sure this is implemented. UNISON will also be seeking a commitment that all contractors delivering services on behalf of the council are paying the London Living Wage.

 

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