Stop gagging local unions in Barnet Council. – please sign and share

For the past nine months all the trade unions have had meetings with senior officers to try and avoid this attack on our right to organise and represent members. In these meetings we have been informed that senior managers have agreed to this proposal. This decision takes place before the Council begins to consult on ripping up staff terms & conditions, allowances, and take workers out of National Pay bargaining. Last week UNISON along with the other Council trade unions attended a last ditch meeting with the Leader of Barnet Council to try and avert this attack. Unfortunately our discussions were unsuccessful.

Stop gagging local unions in Barnet Council. Petition

 

Dear Mr Cornelius

It is clear from your own website that Barnet Council has already embarked on a radical outsourcing policy which has had a significant impact on former and current Council workers. Surely you must recognise the importance for staff to be represented and supported by a trade union?

Facility Time is good practice and is a means by which trade unions can carry out what are often demanding and complex roles which includes provision of advice to members, formal representation of members in grievance and disciplinary hearings and negotiating with managers over terms and conditions, outsourcing, restructures, cuts to services.

In 2007, the then Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR, now BIS – Department for Business Innovation and Skills) conducted a review of facilities and facility time available to workplace representatives. The review found the following in unionised workplaces:

· Dismissal rates were lower

· Voluntary exit rates were lower

· Employment tribunal cases are lower

· Workplace-related injuries were lower

· All of the above generated savings up to £977m for the employer.

As Leader of Barnet Council I am asking that you cease your proposal to reduce the facility time pot to zero for the two local trade unions.

Why is it important?

The two local trade unions, UNISON & GMB, have been subject to both personal and political attacks by Conservative controlled Barnet Council in relation to facility time. On 1 April 2014 the Council are ceasing all of the facility time for both trade unions. The facility time pot has already been cut by 66% to date. This is the final act of what has been a sustained attack on the local trade unions for daring to question the wisdom of the One Barnet mass outsourcing of Council services. Barnet Council has been promoting the ideology ‘Public Bad Private Good’ as the solution to ‘Austerity’ with the help of expensive consultants (Consultancy Agilisys estimated costs to date close to £8million this does not include £millions spent on legal advice). First it was Future Shape then EasyCouncil, then One Barnet and now it is being promoted as the Commissioning Council. Whatever the name of this policy the human cost has meant redundancies and significant attacks on terms & conditions for those staff outsourced to contractors such as Your Choice Barnet, NSL, Capita and Barnet Homes.

Here is an animation explaining what is happening in Barnet http://youtu.be/o6I9kP6nCMg

The Trade Unions view this attempt to gag the unions as a form of de-recognition as it is clearly designed to undermine our ability to represent and organise across a number of employers all of whom currently contribute to a facility time pot of money. Once again Barnet Council in its drive to outsource all of its remaining council services also wants to be first to smash the ability of trade unions to be able to support, represent and defend hard working staff.

To Sign Petition click on link below 

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-gagging-local-unions-in-barnet-council

“What happened at the Agency Workers Employment Appeal Tribunal on 19 December 2013?”

Please note: Barnet’s Appeal was not about re-opening the case itself but about the number of days compensation to be paid to staff affected by the Council’s breaches of TUPE and TULCRA 1992. You can read the original judgement here

The Case made by Barnet Council was that there had been a ‘error in law’ by the employment tribunal. Barnet Council in the Appeal claimed the original judgement may mean paying staff a total of £850,000.

The key to this claim can be found in the original judgement by the Tribunal in December 2012. Specifically the following paragraph of this judgement was critical to the decision to uphold the Appeal.

Paragraph 8.5 which states

“For these purposes we consider the failure together for all matters raised (the redundancies and the two transfers) before deciding what it is appropriate to award. In general terms, we accept that we have to consider what is just and equitable. The guidance contained within Susie Radin is quite clear and we must consider the seriousness of the breach. We also accept that Susie Radin indicates that we start with a maximum only where there is no consultation and that cannot be said to be the position in this case. Having said that, we are not quite sure where we should start if we do not start with the maximum and work down. It was not put to us by either of the respondents’ representatives that there was a better place to start and given that, in our view, this is a relatively serious failure, we do indeed start with the maximum.”

Counsel acting on behalf of Barnet argued that the sentences highlighted in yellow provided grounds to say there had been an “error in law”.

There was a long discussion about how to calculate the starting point for the award i.e. should the Tribunal have started from zero days and worked upwards or should they stayed at maximum award (90 days) and work backwards, or should they have started in the middle.

In the end the Appeal Tribunal agreed that technically there had been an “error in law’ and therefore upheld Barnet’s appeal.

This presented the Appeal Tribunal with three options:

1. Make a decision on what the right award (how many days pay) should be; or

2. Refer the case back to a different Employment Tribunal to look at the case again; or

3. Refer the case back to the original Employment Tribunal.

Counsel acting on behalf of Barnet Council argued for the following:

1. Appeal Tribunal to give a decision on the award; or

2. Refer to a different Tribunal

They did not want the decision to go back to the same Employment Tribunal because they claimed that original Judges would be unlikely to change their original decision about the number of days to be paid out to staff.

The Appeal Tribunal decided to refer the matter back to the original Employment Tribunal.

We do not have the date of when the original Employment Tribunal will make a decision.

Question Time (a local version) comes to Barnet

Question Time (a local version) comes to Barnet

Barnet Alliance have organised four Question Time Events across the London Borough of Barnet

Barnet UNISON is encouraging all of our members to go along to all of these meetings and ask questions of these local politicians who will be standing for election in May this year.

The first of the four meetings is on

Wednesday, 22 January 2014, 7-9pm, doors open 6.30, The Larches, 1 Rectory Lane, HA8 7LF

For details of all these meetings click here

Time to hold local politicians in Barnet to account?

Time to hold local politicians in Barnet to account?

Barnet Alliance have organised four “Question Time Events” across the London Borough of Barnet.

Barnet UNISON is encouraging all of our members to go along to all of these meetings and ask questions of local politicians who will be standing for election in May this year.

Do you have a question about why your job was privatised?

Do you have a question about why your job has been made redundant?

Do you have a question as to why your in house service was not considered as an option to outsourcing?

Do you have a question as to why the Council is attacking your right to belong to a trade union?

Do you have a question you want to ask all of the politicians taking part?

If so then make sure you go along to all of the Question Time events

The first of the four meetings is on

EDGWARE, Wednesday, 22 January 2014, 7-9pm, doors open 6.30, The Larches, 1 Rectory Lane, HA8 7LF

EAST BARNET, Monday, 17 February 2014, 7-9pm, doors open 6.45, St James’ Church, 71 East Barnet Road, EN4 8RN

WEST HENDON, Tuesday, 18 March 2014, 7-9pm, doors open 6.30, Barnet Multicultural Centre,  Road, NW4 3TA

NORTH FINCHLEY,Thursday, 10 April 2014, 7-9pm, doors open 6.30,Greek Cypriot Centre,2 Britannia Road, N12 9RU

For details of all these meetings click here

1 92 93 94 95 96 120