Pay Barnet Bin Workers the right rate for the job now!

Austerity, Health and Safety, Local, News, UNISON Campaign

Dear member

We know that Barnet Bin workers want to be paid the right rate for working on the Green Waste Saturday service.

On 11 February 2021 Barnet UNISON submitted a claim for time and half for working on Green Waste Saturday service for the following reasons:

  1. Street Scene management are currently paying agency workers time and half for working on a Saturday.
  2. Barnet Council has other Council workers who are working time and half on a Saturday and double time on a Sunday.
  3. Street Scene management agree that paying time and half is affordable.
  4. Because the pay is so low a lot of members are already working six days a week for Barnet Council and want to maintain the right to have a weekend off when they choose.
  5. Barnet residents are now paying £70 for green waste collection which is generating millions of pounds to the service.
  6. Waste and Recycling workers have been working throughout the COVID pandemic.
  7. Waste and Recycling workers delivered an excellent service over the Christmas and New Year.
  8. Barnet believes that our members have shown that they can be relied on to work through the pandemic and have delivered through the Christmas and New Year period.
  9. Our members had to be flexible when working around the well documented issues with the last bin collection changes.
  10. Our members had to work around a depot that turned into a building site for almost 12 months due to serious subsidence.
  11. Our members are having to work in a depot that is too small for the number of staff which are now based there.
  12. There are not enough toilets and other welfare facilities in the depot.
  13. Our members are working outside during COVID with nowhere to take breaks due to COVID restrictions.

What do Barnet Council have to say?

On 1 April 2021 Barnet Council responded stating they will only pay time and a half if Bin workers give up their right to a weekend by accepting a change to their contract?

Last year Barnet Bin Workers in a strike ballot voted to reject this proposal to change their contracts.

What are Barnet UNISON doing now?

  • We are organising an informal strike ballot of all of our members working in Waste & Recycling.
  • We have requested an urgent Joint Negotiating Consultative Group (JNCG) meeting with the Chief Executive.

If we do not reach an agreement with the Council at the meeting above Barnet UNISON will have no option but to formally declare a trades dispute and seek support from UNISON National for a legal strike ballot as per our procedures.

We want our members to be treated fairly and with respect.

Keep a look out for news about your ballot paper

*Library workers work every other Saturday and their overtime is contractual. Library workers who work on a Sunday are paid double time and it is not contractual. However there are staff working in social services and the Registrars Service who work Saturday and are paid time and a half and it is not contractual.