Month: May 2026

BARNET’S CLEANERS FORCED TO WAIT 12 DAYS FOR WAGES THEY HAVE ALREADY EARNED

Austerity, Insourcing, News, Solidarity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BARNET’S CLEANERS FORCED TO WAIT 12 DAYS FOR WAGES THEY HAVE ALREADY EARNED

Barnet UNISON demands action from councillors and MPs as Norse Group — a Local Authority Trading Company owned by Norfolk County Council

Barnet UNISON, representing workers across the London Borough of Barnet, is calling on Labour councillors and MPs to urgently intervene after Norse Group imposed a pay arrangement that forces cleaners to wait 12 days after completing four weeks of work before receiving their wages.

Norse Group, owned by Norfolk County Council, was awarded the contract to clean Barnet Council’s buildings. The company’s own 2025/2026 pay schedule — obtained by Barnet UNISON — confirms, without a single exception across all 17 pay periods, a uniform 12-day gap between the end of every working period and every payday. By the time a cleaner is paid, they are already nearly a fortnight into their next four-week working period.

These are London Living Wage workers in one of the most expensive cities in the world. At any given moment, Norse is holding approximately six weeks’ worth of earned wages that belong to our members.

Helen Davies, Branch Chair of Barnet UNISON, said:

“These cleaners get up before dawn to clean the Council’s own buildings. They work four weeks. Then they have to wait another 12 days for money that is rightfully theirs. In the meantime, they cannot pay their rent, their travel costs, their energy bills. They are being forced into overdrafts and debt to cover basic living costs while Norse sits on their wages.

“Norse told us this is about payroll compliance. That is not credible. The reality is that these workers — the lowest paid in public services — are being made to finance Norse’s payroll processing. Their solution was to offer our members a loan. We rejected that with contempt. You should not have to take a loan to access wages you have already earned.

“This is happening under a contract commissioned by Barnet Council. Labour councillors and Labour MPs have the power to act. After last week’s elections and the Prime Minister’s own words about fighting for working people who have been let down, we expect them to use it.”

The detriment to workers is concrete and serious:

  • Workers on the London Living Wage cannot meet rent, bills, and travel costs on the dates they fall due because 12 days of earned wages are withheld
  • Workers on Universal Credit face assessment period distortions caused by the irregular pay timing, causing fluctuating UC awards they depend upon
  • Workers are pushed into overdraft and high-cost credit to cover living costs in the gap between earning and receiving their wages
  • Norse’s proposal that new starters take credit union loans was firmly rejected by UNISON — workers should not go into debt to access money they have earned

Norse’s justification does not stand up. The company has argued that its payroll arrangement is required for compliance with HMRC’s National Minimum Wage framework. Barnet UNISON rejects this entirely. The NMW classification of “time work” determines how minimum wage compliance is calculated — it says nothing about how many days after a period ends an employer may delay payment. Thousands of hourly-paid workers across the public and private sectors are paid within five days of a period’s end. A 12-day lag is a commercial choice, not a legal requirement.

Barnet UNISON is calling for:

  1. Labour councillors and MPs to write formally to Norse Group demanding the pay lag be reduced to a maximum of five working days from period end
  2. Barnet Council to review whether the Norse contract complies with its obligations under the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
  3. A commitment from Barnet’s Labour administration that when the Norse contract expires in 2027, the cleaning service will be brought back in-house, with workers employed directly by the Council on proper terms and conditions
  4. Public support from Labour councillors and MPs for the Barnet UNISON petition, which is being formally launched this week

Background:

Norse Group is the largest Local Authority Trading Company in the country, generating profit for its shareholder, Norfolk County Council, through service contracts with other councils. Barnet UNISON has held two formal meetings with Norse management. On both occasions the company refused to change the pay arrangement. Barnet UNISON has also written previously to the Leader of Barnet Council and to all Labour councillors, without the response this situation demands.

The Prime Minister, in his speech to Labour members on 11 May 2026, acknowledged that “for working people, tired of a status quo that has failed them, change cannot come quickly enough.” For Barnet’s cleaners, change means being paid promptly for work they have done. That is not an unreasonable demand.

ENDS

For media enquiries contact: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

  • Norse Group is a Local Authority Trading Company wholly owned by Norfolk County Council, operating across the country through contracts with local authorities
  • The Norse Group 2025/2026 pay schedule, obtained by Barnet UNISON, shows a consistent 12-day gap between period end and payday across all 17 pay periods in the schedule
  • The current Norse cleaning contract with the London Borough of Barnet is due to expire in 2027
  • Barnet UNISON represents over 3,000 members working across Barnet Council, schools, FE colleges, depots, care services, and contracted services
  • The London Living Wage is set annually by the Living Wage Foundation and is higher than the statutory National Living Wage

Barnet UNISON condemns “back door privatisation” of Passenger Escort service and escalates dispute to meeting with Chief Executive

Austerity, Insourcing, Local, News, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Barnet UNISON condemns “back door privatisation” of Passenger Escort service and escalates dispute to meeting with Chief Executive

Barnet UNISON has escalated its concerns about the future of Passenger Escorts at Barnet Council after formally registering a failure to agree with management.

The union says the Council has been cutting directly employed Passenger Assistant posts and using external provision instead, without proper transparency or meaningful consultation with UNISON.

Management have confirmed that vacancies were not being refilled and that part of the service requirement was being met through externally commissioned Passenger Assistants. Barnet UNISON says this amounts to back door privatisation of a vital frontline service supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

The union has now referred the matter to the Joint Negotiation and Consultation Group, where it will be raised with the Chief Executive.

A Barnet UNISON spokesperson said:

“We have had enough outsourcing in Barnet. We are opposed to back door privatisation and we do not accept low-paid women being made to carry the burden of yet more austerity and hardship.

This is happening in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis in a lifetime, in one of the most expensive cities in the world. It is wrong.

Passenger Escorts do difficult, responsible and essential work supporting children with special needs. They deserve decent pay, decent terms and conditions, access to a pension, proper training, proper management support and the security of direct employment by the Council.

Barnet UNISON has formally escalated this matter to a meeting with the Chief Executive because council jobs should stay council jobs. We will not stand by while low-paid frontline services are hollowed out by stealth.”

Barnet UNISON is calling on Barnet Council to:

  • provide a full and accurate breakdown of the current Passenger Assistant workforce across the service, including how many are directly employed by LBB, how many are agency, and how many are employed by contractors or commissioned providers
  • stop any further erosion of directly employed Passenger Assistant posts
  • begin recruiting Passenger Escorts directly to Barnet Council posts rather than relying on agency or external arrangements
  • return Passenger Escorts to direct management under the Passenger Transport Service
  • ensure Passenger Escorts have decent pay, decent terms and conditions, pension access, proper training and proper support to carry out this essential role

Barnet UNISON says the issue is not just about staffing numbers. It is about fairness, accountability and the future of public services in Barnet.

Ends

For media enquiries contact: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

Barnet UNISON response: working people must come first

National, News, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

UNISON General Secretary Andrea Egan has issued a clear message: working people cannot be treated as an afterthought.

For Barnet UNISON members, this speaks directly to what we are seeing every day in our workplaces. Our members are dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, rising rents, food bills, debt, stress, unsafe staffing levels and services under pressure. Too many workers delivering public services are still low paid, outsourced, denied decent pensions and left on inferior terms and conditions.

That has to change.

Andrea’s message is important because it says clearly that politics must return to its basic purpose: improving the lives of working people. That means proper pay restoration for public service workers. It means investment in councils, schools, care, housing, cleaning, transport, social work and all the services our communities rely on. It means ending the failed model of outsourcing, where public money is siphoned away from services while workers are left on poorer pay, poorer pensions and poorer conditions.

In Barnet, we know exactly what outsourcing has meant. It has meant low-paid workers being pushed to the margins. It has meant cleaners, care workers, housing workers, parking workers, security staff, catering workers and others being treated differently from directly employed staff, even though they are delivering public services for our community.

Barnet UNISON’s position is simple: public services should be delivered by properly paid, properly supported, directly employed public service workers.

We welcome Andrea Egan’s call for radical change because our members cannot wait. The cost-of-living crisis is not an abstract political debate. It is the daily reality of workers choosing between bills, food, travel and supporting their families. It is the stress members bring into work every day. It is the reason we are campaigning on pay, pensions, equal pay, holiday pay, insourcing and better terms and conditions.

Barnet UNISON will continue to organise, campaign and speak up for our members. We will not be silent when low-paid workers are struggling. We will not accept outsourcing as normal. We will not accept public services being run down while workers are told to do more with less.

The message from our General Secretary is clear: working people must come first.

That is our message too.

Barnet UNISON will keep fighting for:

  • fair pay and pay restoration
  • equal pay for low-paid women workers
  • insourcing of outsourced services
  • decent pensions for all public service workers
  • proper staffing levels
  • safe workplaces
  • dignity and respect at work
  • public services run for people, not profit

Our members built these services. Our members keep them running. Our members deserve better.

Barnet UNISON will continue to put working people first.

End.

Background: 

Opinion: I want Labour to succeed, but that means radical change

The NEC By-Election is On. VOTE NOW!

National, News, UNISON Campaign

Barnet UNISON nominated Liz Wheatley

By now you should have received an envelope with the words “Civica Election Services” on it. This is your ballot paper. Please do not throw it away but Vote NOW!

From Thursday 14 May you can contact the helpline: 0800 0857 857 If you have not received your ballot paper.

Members with hearing difficulties can use textphone 0800 0 967 968.

This helpline closes 12noon 21st May

Deadline for voting is Friday 5pm 29th May!

We nominated Liz Wheatley because:

Liz is Branch Secretary of Camden UNISON, and was a regional rep on UNISON’s NEC from 2019-2025.

Liz has organised successful strikes – Camden traffic wardens winning a £5,000 pay increase. Camden is currently fighting for more pay for Teaching Assistants, with strike action taking place in schools currently in the London borough.

Liz is committed to an organising union and says,

“I was proud to support Andrea Egan to be our General Secretary. I am committed to working closely with her to bring about the changes necessary for UNISON to be a union that stands up to the bosses and politicians when they try to cut the services we provide, the wages we deserve or attack working class people.

“No longer should we put the interests of the Labour Party first; UNISON members must be our priority. We need a UNISON where branches and activists get the organising support and resources they need, and we deliver real wins for members.”

 She has also stood with Barnet UNISON on many of our picket lines and events.

End.