Category: UNISON Campaign

Barnet UNISON issued the following letter today 21 August 2014 to all of our members working for Your Choice Barnet (YCB) in response to the YCB letter sent 19 August 2014 here

“Dear Colleague

You will have received a letter from Julie Riley on 19^th August regarding the decision to take strike action which is clearly designed to frighten you into not taking strike action. We want to set the record straight on some of the arguments presented in that letter.

It is true YCB was very open to UNISON about its accounts and this enabled UNISON to fully understand the dire financial state of YCB. As YCB have referred to their budget we believe that in the interests of transparency we strongly recommend that all of our members write back to Julie Riley and request a copy of the financial information shared with UNISON. It is important that staff, who are key stakeholders in YCB, can see the facts for themselves.

Contrary to what is contained within the letter UNISON made a number of suggestions, most of which were not accepted:

· Barnet Homes (BH) writes off the £1 million loan

· Barnet Council stop penalising YCB for ‘no shows’

· Barnet Council pays up front to YCB in order to help the cash flow situation

· Barnet Council pays the going rate for the services being offered.

· Barnet Council conducts an immediate investigation as to why Adult Social care services have referred only a handful of referrals in two and half years.

· Senior management and other Service Level Agreement costs imposed on YCB are reduced.

· YCB & Barnet Council find a more efficient way to invoice for services. The current arrangement is that Barnet Group invoices Barnet Council then YCB invoices Barnet Group.

· YCB is allowed to independently procure its own support services and not be forced to use Capita CSG services.

It is important to note that the accounts showed that YCB will balance its books only if you accept a 9.5% pay cut and YCB pays nothing back on its loan to BH. However, YCB were adamant they must pay back the £1 million. YCB were unable to tell us how they would find the money to pay off £1,000,000 over the next three years.

Our fear was that YCB would have to come back to our members for more money, which is why we asked in the meeting if they could give an assurance that this would not happen. As you know YCB were unable to give such an assurance.

We are concerned that our members cannot keep on ‘bailing out’ YCB every year.

YCB makes the point about still paying the London Living Wage for the assistant support workers (£8.80 per hour) but that is for this year only. The London Living Wage rises annually at the rate of the ‘cost of living’ (unlike your wage). This will mean those at YCB on £8.80 per hour should get a pay rise of around 3% next year for YCB to stick to this commitment. However, this increase was not contained within their budget.

We note in the letter which states “It is not the Council’s intention to take the services back in-house, however if there is no other option but to step in they would be likely to find other providers”. Our reps and members have reported back that they perceive this message as a direct threat that they should ‘shut up and accept the 9.5% cut’ and be grateful that they don’t get handed over to a private company.

I would like to remind members of the following statement made at Cabinet Resources Committee 24 May 2011 “Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.” (p.57 of the Business Case)

We are very clear that if UNISON’s recommendations made to YCB are not accepted then the future viability of YCB is at serious risk and Barnet Council should honour their statement on 24 May 2011.

UNISON members have taken part in three ballots over the last six months and on each occasion more UNISON members have voted ‘yes’ to reject the 9.5% pay cut. On Wednesday 20 August 2014 we had a meeting with reps and members and have agreed a programme of strike action and some demonstrations, details of which will follow shortly.

Please note the first demonstration will be outside Hendon Town Hall on Monday September 1^st at 6 pm.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Davies                                    John Burgess

Branch Chair                                    Branch Secretary

Yesterday Your Choice Barnet chose to go public in the Hendon Times about the ongoing dispute here and wrote a letter to our members.

Last night (20 August 2014) UNISON had a meeting with our members and local reps to discuss the letter and the decision of our members to take strike action next month.

Members were angry and upset at the content of the letter which you can read here.

Your Choice Barnet (YCB) “The real deal”

Background

YCB imposed a 9.5% cut in pay to all their staff starting from 1 April 2014. Barnet UNISON carried out an indicative ballot to ascertain if members wanted to accept the 9.5% cut or if they wanted to be formally balloted. UNISON members overwhelming voted to be balloted for strike action.

UNISON organised a legal strike ballot and members voted 100% for strike action this was an amazing result.

ACAS became involved and UNISON agreed to attend a meeting together with ACAS and YCB. At this meeting an agreement was reached that staff would have their pay reinstated for just one month, whilst further negotiations took place.

These further discussions elicited more financial information in an attempt to ascertain the financial viability of YCB and to see if savings could be made from ‘expenditure/overheads’.

We asked them to look at savings across the following headings:

· Senior management costs

· Financial services

· Accommodation costs

· IT services

· Business Improvement costs

· Renegotiate the terms of the £1 million loan from Barnet Homes

YCB then made a revised offer of a 8.31% pay cut for our members, further reductions were offered if staff wanted to lose some of their annual leave. Our members were given a detailed chart showing the further reductions of the 9.5% depending on how much annual leave they lost.

On a 73% turnout 90% voted in favour of taking action to reinstate their pay. Actually more members took part in this third ballot in three months and more voted for strike action.

Key ongoing issues throughout the negotiations so far

· Was YCB able to generate enough new income to reduce the need for cuts to staff?

·Was YCB able to generate enough new income to pay off the £1million loan to Barnet Homes?

·Over the last 18 months there has been a 30% reduction in staff as staff have been made redundant in order to save money for YCB.

· Staff working in Supported Living & Valley Way have had their ‘out-of-hours’ payments slashed in order to save money for YCB

· YCB have increased the numbers of assistant support workers and reduced the numbers of support workers in order to save money for YCB

· YCB is wholly owned subsidiary of The Barnet Group which is wholly owned London Borough of Barnet, YCB had to take a loan of £1 million from Barnet Homes (another company which is wholly owned by the London Borough of Barnet through The Barnet Group)

· YCB said they had not been made aware of the cash flow problems as a result of moving from block contract payments.

· YCB were not resourced for the level of invoicing necessary when the payment moved from block payments.

· YCB were unprepared to cope with no payments for ‘no shows’.

“What is a ‘no show?”

This is where the service user does not attend a service, this could be for planned reasons such as holidays or hospital appointments or through sickness. It is has been shocking to hear that the impact of this critical factor had not been identified as a serious risk to the financial viability of YCB. We have learnt that although discussions have been had with LBB over ‘no shows’ the financial losses are a significant factor in the future viability of YCB. We estimate about 50% of the 9.5 % cut to our members is as a result of the financial penalty imposed by Barnet Council on YCB.

· It has become clear over the last 18 months that the financial viability of YCB rests solely with Barnet Council.

· Barnet Council is penalising YCB by not paying for ‘no shows’

· Barnet Council is hardly making new referrals to YCB

· Barnet Council is not paying YCB the going rate for the service provided “Prior to the salary reductions changes we were being paid a market rate of £18.43 per hour and it was costing us £21.81 per hour and this was not sustainable” (source: Hendon Times 3 June 2014)

· In response to the cuts to our members there has been some commentary (inside YCB and in the public domain) that if only YCB could grow new business the profits would negate the need to make pay cuts to the staff.

· Barnet UNISON decided it was critical to our negotiations that we look into the possibility of generating new income in order to see if this was an area which if successful would enable the cuts to be withdrawn or reduced. In our negotiations with YCB we asked for details for each service in order to see if they could deliver new business and if so what any new income would mean to staff in terms of their 9.5% pay cut.

· For Supported Living we learnt that any new business would not deliver a financial benefit to the business so no point in looking to grow this service.

· The two of the three day services are intensive support for service users so even some marginal increases in numbers of service users mean that there is not enough marginal profit to generate meaningful income either to mitigate the cuts to our members pay or support the future viability of YCB.

· Barnet UNISON felt there was too much money spent on back office services for an organisation which employees only 105 fte staff. YCB responded by offering a marginal 1.19 % saving from their ‘expenditure/overheads’which meant the 9.5% cut would reduce to an 8.31% cut for our members.

· Because our members rejected the revised offer YCB have said they will not make the identified 1.19 % back office saving.

· Our members reported ongoing threats that they should “forget about returning to Barnet Council and be more worried about being privatised” needless to say this did not go down well with members!

· YCB were unable to give any assurances to staff that if they accepted the 8.31% cut this year, YCB would not come back for further staff savings next year.

· YCB were unable to explain how they were going to find the money to make the first repayment due in 2014/15 of the £1million loan over three years to Barnet Homes.

It was clear that the only way for YCB to be financially viable would be if:

· Barnet Homes writes off the £1 million loan.

· Barnet Council stop penalising YCB for ‘no shows’.

· Barnet Council pays up front to YCB in order to help the cash flow situation

· Barnet Council pays the going rate for the services being offered.

· Barnet Council conducts an immediate investigation as to why Adult Social care services have referred only a handful of referrals in the last 2 and half years.

· Senior management and other Service Level Agreement costs imposed on YCB are reduced.

· YCB & Barnet Council find a more efficient way to invoice for services. The current arrangement is that Barnet Group invoice Barnet Council then YCB invoice Barnet Group.

· YCB is allowed to independently procure its own support services and not be forced to use Capita CSG services.

Barnet UNISON Press Release: 8 August 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Your Choice Barnet Care Workers voted on 90% majority to take strike action

Barnet UNISON has concluded a ballot of care workers based on a slightly improved “offer” from Your Choice Barnet following the close of negotiations in mid-July. The offer still means our members would lose 8.31% from their wages rather than 9.5%. It still represents a swingeing cut to their wages at a time when other workers up and down the country have rejected a 1% per cent pay rise. On a 73% turnout 90% voted in favour of taking action to reinstate their pay.

During the negotiations YCB was very open regarding their finances. Even if our members took this hit on their wages now, YCB could not guarantee this would be an end to the cuts in pay even in the short term. Indeed their proposed budget for the next year breaks even only if they pay nothing on the loan from Barnet Homes. YCB confirmed in the negotiations this left a huge funding gap. This lack of reassurance from YCB that they would not be coming back for more cuts undoubtedly contributed to the resounding rejection of the latest pay cut.

What the negotiations did reveal is the scandalous charging arrangements foisted onto YCB, which make it difficult to see how YCB can be financially viable in the future without making the workers pay an even heftier price. Significantly where a service user fails to turn up to the day service e.g. because they are sick, YCB cannot charge for the service. Yet YCB will have organised their staffing based on those service users turning up and have to bear the brunt of those staffing costs when the service user does not appear. Many service users need 1 to 1 support. The failure to turn up or “no shows” costs YCB a significant loss of income. This significant sum of money would go a long way to restoring our members’ wages. Barnet Council is refusing to pay YCB for these “no shows” and yet this is a company wholly owned by Barnet Council!

Our members pointed to the fact that if they were to cancel their child’s childcare arrangements without a week’s notice, they are still charged. For any course, you have to pay up front and turn up or lose the money. So if we are to adopt an “oh-so- very-private-sector” ethos how can this charging arrangement for YCB be allowed?

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said:

“We need urgent talks between Barnet Council and Your Choice Barnet to come to an arrangement whereby YCB has a real future and our members and service users do not have to continue to take the brunt of the financial failures imposed on them by Barnet Council.”

Notes to Editors.

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

Background:

In February 2012 Barnet Council transferred Learning Disability and Physical and Sensory Impairment services for adults to a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) called Your Choice Barnet (YCB). About 160 staff (145.6 Full Time Equivalents) in Adults services transferred to the LATC.

Following a restructure in 2013 and cuts to pay on shift allowances there are now only about 105 FTE working for YCB a 30% cut in staffing levels.

Links

1. Barnet UNISON response to Your Choice Barnet Consultation Paper

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/UNISON%20response%20to%20YOUR%20CHOICE%20BARNET%20March%202014%20FINAL.pdf

2. ‘The way out of financial crisis’ Analysis of Consultation Paper Your Choice Barnet Ltd The Barnet Group Ltd (Local Authority Trading Company), London Borough of Barnet

http://www.socialworkfuture.org/attachments/article/330/CADDSS%20analysis%20.pdf

3. Barnet UNISON Report: The Barnet Group Ltd, Local Authority Trading Company: Privatising Adults and Housing Services London Borough of Barnet

http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/news/2012/local-authority-trading-company-latc-for-adult/latc-analysis-2012.pdf

4. Stop the ongoing destruction of services for adults with disabilities in Barnet petition https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-ongoing-destruction-of-services-for-adults-with-disabilities-in-barnet

 

Briefly Barnet Council are looking to implement a new pay and grading structure, modernise and harmonise allowances together with our terms and conditions of employment. This is a massive project and the Council are looking to do this through collective bargaining with the Trade Unions.

Please see click here to read some of the key things the council have informed staff about Unified Pay and how you can become involved.

Terms & Conditions Health Warning:

We are concerned that because of the ongoing changes in the workplace, many of our members are only just starting to hear about Unified Pay.

This short booklet is intended to highlight some of the issues and start a process whereby we can begin to inform and consult with all of our members working for Barnet Council including those staff working in community schools.

 

It is really important that staff are engaging in discussion about the content of their job descriptions and the whole process which is why we are embarking on a series of meetings/briefings across the workforce (click on link here for details). 

First of all our branch wants to thank all of our supporters for the ongoing messages of support we are still getting from other trade union branches, members, residents, parents & carers. This support means a lot to our members.

As a result of productive talks with YCB and ACAS on 13 June YCB are reinstating the former pay of all YCB staff for the month of July only.

This Friday 4 July Barnet UNISON are meeting with YCB as part of a series of meetings to try and avert a strike over the 9.5% cut to their pay imposed on 1 April 2014.

In the interim, Barnet UNISON has requested more detailed financial information in order to see if there are any opportunities to find an alternative to 9.5% cut to our member’s terms and conditions.

As a result of talks at ACAS on Friday 13 June, the following agreement has been reached:

Your Choice Barnet has agreed to make a one-of payment in the July pay run to the equivalent of reinstating the 9.5% reduction for that month only to affected staff.

Talks will continue between UNISON and YCB with a view to identifying potential savings for the organisation of £400,000. Talks to be completed and all options explored by 12 July 2014.

 

On the basis of this agreement UNISON has agreed to suspend strike action.

Barnet UNISON has spent 3 days in negotiations so far with Your Choice Barnet and we will continue talking. We are hopeful the talks will yield a positive change for our members but at the moment this has not been achieved.

Our members working for Your Choice Barnet delivered a100% vote for strike action and will not be taking strike action lightly but as one colleague said:

“In taking this action we are standing up for ourselves and service users so neither lose out”.

Background:

In February 2012 Barnet Council transferred Learning Disability and Physical and Sensory Impairment services for adults to a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) called Your Choice Barnet (YCB). About 160 staff (145.6 Full Time Equivalents) in Adults services transferred to the LATC.Following a restructure and cuts to pay on shift allowancesthere are now only about 105 FTE working for YCB.

This is a resounding ballot result and vindication of why Barnet UNISON has always said theadditional 9.5% cut was unacceptable both to our members and the future for these critical frontline services. It is not feasible to continually attack low paid workers and expect them to take it without a fight and our members are not prepared to put up with joining a race to the bottom that is now common practice in the social care industry. The business case for this outsourced service was flawed from the outset three years ago and to date we have yet to see any financial figures which demonstrate this service will be able to deliver new business.

Our members are taking a pay cut in order for YCB to repayBarnet Homes a loan borrowed at commercial rates of interest!

Last year Barnet Council brought back the recycling service because they felt they could do a better job, which is why we are asking them to bring this service back in house in order to ensure a safe and secure service for Adults with Disabilities in Barnet.

The last twelve months have seen a sharp increase in the numbers of agency staff and zero hours contracts being used to deliver these services. The attacks on staff haveunderminedmorale and led to an exodus of experienced staff. For many of our members this is a last chance to save the service.

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said:

“Your Choice Barnet say they have no choice as Barnet Council is only prepared to pay a set market rate for the support provided by YCB, but YCB is owned wholly by the Council. Somewhere between the Council and YCB there has to be a solution which doesn’t mean our members and the service users are used as football between the two paying for the problem.”

Notes to Editors.

Contact details: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on07738389569 or 0208 359 2088 or email:john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

Links

1. Barnet UNISON response to Your Choice Barnet Consultation Paper

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/UNISON%20response%20to%20YOUR%20CHOICE%20BARNET%20March%202014%20FINAL.pdf

2. ‘The way out of financial crisis’ Analysis of Consultation Paper Your Choice Barnet Ltd The Barnet Group Ltd (Local Authority Trading Company), London Borough of Barnet

http://www.socialworkfuture.org/attachments/article/330/CADDSS%20analysis%20.pdf

3. Barnet UNISON Report: The Barnet Group Ltd, Local Authority Trading Company: Privatising Adults and Housing Services London Borough of Barnet

http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/news/2012/local-authority-trading-company-latc-for-adult/latc-analysis-2012.pdf

4. Stop the ongoing destruction of services for adults with disabilities in Barnet petition

 

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-ongoing-destruction-of-services-for-adults-with-disabilities-in-barnet

“Our severely disabled son has benefited greatly from the commitment and expertise of Day Centre staff (now employed by YCB) over two decades. It is scandalous that they should be rewarded with savage pay cuts. The impact will be not only on their own livelihoods but also on the service users, who rely on them for enhancing their own quality of life.Their skill and dedication ought to be properly recognised, and we offer them our unreserved support.”

Janet and Tony Solomons

Parents / Carers / CADDSS member

“As a Parent that has seen the loss in recent months of irreplaceable high quality care workers, I whole heartedly support the proposed strike action of YCB care workers, they deserve better, and this  wage cut is unacceptable on any terms.

Lets hope this strike stops the decline in the quality of service provision we have witnessed in Barnet since the launch of Your Choice Barnet.”

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Ida Sullivan.

 

Parent of Susan Sullivan (Community Space  Edgware )