Labour councillors call on Barnet Council to attend talks with ACAS

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We would like to express our solidarity with YCB workers who are resisting cuts to their wages of nearly 10%.

We met with YCB workers on the picket lines and they told what the devastating impact these pay cuts would mean for them, their families and also the service users. They are also concerned that this will be only the first of a series of attacks on their terms and conditions.

We feel strongly that these committed staff, who do a vital yet demanding job in a sector that is already inadequately remunerated, should not be forced to pay for Barnet Council’s failure to adequately resource YCB when it transferred it to the Barnet Group Indeed, these cuts are a direct consequence of the flawed business plan behind YCB, whose weaknesses were initially flagged up by UNISON in 2012.  To date, YCB has failed to generate the additional income upon which YCB’s long-term financial viability rested.  A crucial cause of YCB’s drop in income is a result of Barnet Council’s reduction in referrals to YCB and its decision to no longer pay when one of its clients doesn’t turn up.

When the Council’s Cabinet Resources Committee approved the setting-up of YCB in 2012, it stated that:

“The obligations and risk placed on the LATC will subsequently be fully passed down to the operating subsidiary companies. Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.”

We therefore call upon Barnet Council as the only share holder in the Barnet Group and therefore the owner of YCB to intervene urgently to save YCB and ensure that care staff are not subjected to this savage wage cut. We have also written to the Leader of the Council to instruct a representative of the Council to attend the  ACAS talks on Monday 22nd September, and help to bring the dispute to a satisfactory resolution, for the sake of staff and service users alike.”

Cllr. Amy Trevethan, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Chipping Barnet and Underhill Councillor and

 

Cllr. Paul Edwards Underhill Councillor