What is really going on in Barnet

Earlier this week Barnet Council began what has been described my many of our members as a systematic and ruthless campaign to bully and intimidate UNISON members who are about to take strike action.

It is important to understand that the Council have walked away from negotiations and are now trying to circumvent negotiations with UNISON by bombarding staff with a deliberate misrepresentation of what has been taking place in negotiations

Here is a comment from a letter sent by our UNISON regional organiser to our Chief Executive yesterday

“Finally, it is of grave concern to UNISON that the council’s negotiating team has been limited to HR staff. UNISON fielded our Regional Head of Local Government in addition to the Branch Chair, Branch Secretary and myself as we regarded the issues posed in Barnet as being of significant strategic importance. It remains a disappointment to us that the Council has not seen fit to deploy senior strategic staff in support of its HR team in these negotiations and I would ask you to rethink its composition for the future.”

For the avoidance of any doubt the UNISON negotiating team consisted of:

UNISON Head of Local Government

UNISON Regional Organiser

Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON Branch Chair

 

Council Negotiating Team

Interim Assistant Director of HR (Consultant)

Head of Business Partnering & Change

HR Policy Lead (Consultant)

 

You can read the full letter here