ProDemocracy Public Services Rally on Saturday 26 May from 11 – 1 pm outside Osidge Library

This Saturday  26 May from 11 am to 1 pm Barnet UNISON along with other Council Trade Unions are going to be joined by Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) and a host of other local campaigning groups including the Save Friern Library campaign to leaflet residents in Brunswick ward. Their leaflet warns residents about the One Barnet mass privatisation policy which is currently being rolled out across all council services.

All who value public services are welcome to join us outside Osidge Library, Brunswick Park Road, London, N11 1EY

Is over a 15% cut in wages….reasonable to staff working in Children Centres?

No this is not about the effect of the pay freeze. Some of our colleagues in Children’s Centres are not only subjected to the pay freeze but being consulted about a real cut in their wages to take effect this year as they are expected to move from standard contracts to Term Time Only Contracts. The Council is proposing to remove the subsidy for child care in Children’s Centres and redistribute this across the Children’s Centres. This is something the Government is keen on but each Council can take a view about whether they actually move in this direction.

Our Council has chosen to go down this path with devastating consequences for some of our members. The redistribution of money bizarrely may not result in extra work for those colleagues taking a financial hit. Currently Newstead, Wingfield and The Hyde Children’s Centres are those being hit but in the next couple of years more colleagues could be asked to work and be paid Term Time Only.

UNISON’s position is that we are opposed to the removal of the subsidy of child care in the Children’s Centres and opposed to the cuts to our members’ terms and conditions.

Barnet Council response to the UNISON report on Revenues and Benefits

 

UNISON responded the restrucure to Revenues and Benefits by producing a detailed 13 page report including detailed evidence.

You can find our Executive Summary here

You can find our detailed report here  

You can find our supporting evidence here

You can read the Council response here

To say it is disappointing woudl be an understatement. It is never easy to encourage staff, residents and the public to engage in consultation because many beleive the decisions have already been agreed. This is a very dangerous position to take and undermines local democracy.

In terms of the Council response I am shocked at the lack of detail to our report and the misrepresentation of our offer which was 

If the Council abandon the restructure, they can make a saving of three consultants immediately, which we estimate would produce a total saving of £500k in 12 months. UNISON is prepared to offer the use of an expert consultant free of charge to work with the existing senior management team to produce a sustainable alternative structure for this service before outsourcing.”

We were in fact offering two savings for the Barnet council tax payer not one. The first saving was to terminate the contracts of the consultants. It is difficult to understand the business case for the continued use of consultants in Revenues & Benefits as they have given the task of making the restructure (they proposed) work to the council employed management team.

The second saving to the Barnet council tax payer was to provide the FREE use of a consultant to produce a sustainable alternative structure for this service before outsourcing.

Branch Secretary writes to all Barnet Councillors about Customer Services Transformation for Revenues & Benefits

Dear Councillors

 

Please find UNISON response to a restructure of Revenues & Benefits service before outsourcing. The council proposals for the service have provoked the biggest staff response in the 17 years I have been involved in staffing issues. I would strongly recommend councillors to read the report. An executive summary provides an overview of the risks and concerns.

 

I am currently awaiting a written response to our report.

 

Please note the UNISON offer is

 

“If the Council abandon the restructure, they can make a saving of three consultants immediately, which we estimate would produce a total saving of £500k in 12 months. UNISON is prepared to offer the use of an expert consultant free of charge to work with the existing senior management team to produce a sustainable alternative structure for this service before outsourcing.”

 

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

One Barnet Seven Deadly Risks to Council Tax revenue

M 1% drop in income collection could expose the council to a loss of over £2.2 million in council tax collection just over £1.1 million in business rates.

M a loss of 1% in Council Tax subsidy would equate to £2.6million. Currently Barnet performs in the top six in London at maximising the reclaim from the DWP

M failure council to optimise its income could potentially result in unplanned future increases in council tax as result of non collection. 

M Failure to maximise the council tax base due to updates not being done in an accurate or timely fashion, discount and exemption entitlements not being effectively policed

M Any removal of key checks and balances, as suggested by the consultant’s report, will inevitably result in an increase in errors and deterioration in the detection and prevention of fraud.

M Customer care standards will drop as a result of the transfer of most types of contact to the contact call centre. Currently near to 100% of calls are resolved at first point of contact. The contact call centre aims to achieve only 80%.

M Cuts to management structure place undue burden on management’s capacity to deal with future planned legislative changes and therefore there is a risk to operational performance and meet set income targets

Executive summary here

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/869

Detailed report here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/2012.05.02.UNISON%20response%20to%20Revenues%20and%20BenefitsFINAL.pdf

Evidence here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/2012.05.02.UNISONAppendixesRevs&%20Bens.pdf

 

UPDATE Barnet Homes Restructure and Redundancy discussions

Earlier this week UNISON tabled a response to the proposed restructure of Housing Needs & Resources which you can read here

UNISON met with Barnet Homes as part of the HNR restructure consultation.

We raised our concerns about various aspects of the proposal and the implications for staff including the impact on team leadership, the duty senior system, levels of staff stress and lack of information on the call centre.

Barnet Homes have agreed to continue to work with us to mitigate the impact of some of these issues. We have asked for more information and will be meeting again with Barnet Homes next week.

 

 

 

 

Pro-Democracy Rally & Pop up Protest Library update – come along this Saturday!

Last Saturday it rained and it blew, but there was no way this UNISON gazebo was going to get blown down. This was the 3rd week the pop-up library has taken place. Barnet UNISON has had a stall there on each occasion and the feedback and support we get is very positive. Speakers from the Save Friern Barnet Library Campaign, political parties, fellow trade unionists, including one from Camden addressed the people at the rally. A camera crew from the BBC’s One Show filmed the event.

One resident said at last weekend’s rally that it was important people understood the pop-up library was not there to replace the closed library staffed by qualified workers on decent wages as they cannot replace such a service. She said this library is about protest.

Residents have been working hard in an alliance with the unions to alert the population of Barnet to the dangers of this Council privatising en masse all of its services. The alliance has received an enormous boost from the showing of the film “A Tale of Two Barnets” and the occupation of the Friern Barnet Library as they have brought together activists from all the various campaigns. Some 1,000 residents have seen this film by now.

The strands of campaigns are coming together identifying common themes of phony democracy (or Mockracy) and the perils of privatisation as things they want to campaign against.

Our UNISON members in the Council should take heart and remember we have a community to win, but we have to be there.

Privatisation of social care direct – where will it end?

Barnet Council Consultant says: “People should apply for the job if they like the look of it. Where it is, is important but perhaps less important. When I’m applying for a job I think firstly about the role. The location is really not that important.”

Unfortunately it is very important for most people and the colleagues in Social Care Direct are like most of us. Location, location, location – it’s important! This is one of the things they heard at the meeting today which told them that all Assessment Enablement Officers will be going into the Customer Call Centre.

There will be the opportunity for 2 professionally qualified colleagues to go with them. The other colleagues will be put into a Rapid Response Team or redeployed across the service. We do not yet know what a Rapid Response Team will look like. This is to be worked out in tandem with the process of the others going into the Call Centre.

The colleagues going into the Call Centre will then be transferred onto BT or Capita, sometime early in the New Year. It is not known if these companies intend to operate from Barnet.

The branch will be organising a union meeting for all Adult Social Services workers in the next 2 weeks or so. This restructure has big implications for all of us in this sector as there are potential knock-on effects in our workloads.

Barnet & Southgate College Update

All Unions are consulting jointly and individually with management regarding the College’s middle management restructure.  Through these meetings many contributions have been made to the initial consultation paper given on 20 February 2012 and some amendments to the proposals have been agreed and have been included in the Consultation Paper Update given on 27 April 2012.

Management has confirmed that the Business Support  area will be reviewed in the Autumn term however UNISON has obtain agreement with management to run a joint administration review on the current services which will provide invaluable information to management prior to them issuing a new proposal for Business Support staff in the Autumn Term.

UNISON has also raised the issue with management about the inequality of London Weighting (LW) pay between the Teaching Staff and the Business Support staff and has asked for a justification for the disparity in pay.  UNISON has stated that the LW is an allowance paid to those who work in London within the public sector and was designed to help workers with the cost of living in London.  UNISON has asked the question that if both the teaching and business support staff work in the same buildings in London, why is there a difference in pay?  UNISON has also stated that in the interest of fairness and to ensure that no discriminatory practices are occurring surely LW must be calculated on a fair and transparent basis and applied consistently to all Barnet & Southgate College staff.  Management’s response was that they would look into the rationale for the difference in pay and report back at the next Union meeting.

UNISON is inviting all staff (both member and non-members) to an open meeting for all Southgate Campus Business Support Staff on Thursday 10th May from 12.15-1.15pm or 1.15-2.15pm in the Lecture Theatre at Southgate Campus.  Please try to attend one of the sessions and bring a colleague with you.  This will be an occasion for staff to meet UNISON reps and provide further updates on the current restructuring process.  This will also provide the opportunity for potential new members to join UNISON.  Refreshments will be provided.

Christalla Tsattala

UNISON Barnet & Southgate Senior Steward

 

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