FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — 100% of Barnet bin and street cleansing workers reject holiday pay offer

18 August 2026

Barnet bin and street cleansing workers vote 100% to reject holiday pay offer, seek formal strike ballot

Council workers affected by Barnet Council’s 12-year holiday pay underpayment have unanimously rejected the council’s current offer, Barnet UNISON has announced and are now seeking a formal industrial action ballot.

In a consultative ballot, bin workers returned a 96% turnout with 100% voting to reject the council’s offer of six months’ backdated pay. Street Cleansing workers returned a 66% turnout, also with 100% voting to reject it — against underpayment that in many cases goes back to 2014.

The union has already written to the council’s Chief Executive and separately to Council Leader Barry Rawlings following the result, calling for urgent talks and asking the Leader to personally intervene.

A Joint Negotiating and Consultative Group meeting has since been confirmed for Monday 14 September, where the union will press the council on the questions it has raised.

UNISON has put a series of questions to the council that it says the public would reasonably expect answered, including why correct payment only began once a new payroll contractor took over in 2025, whether the council knew about the failure before then, whether a full investigation has taken place, whether Capita has been asked to account for the failure, whether the council has considered recovering the loss from Capita, and what evidence supports six months as an appropriate settlement.

The union is calling on the council to return to meaningful negotiation, provide full transparency on the payroll history, explain the basis of its offer, and come back with a significantly improved settlement that reflects the real duration and scale of the underpayment.

UNISON says that isn’t the outcome anyone wants — but with members having already signalled they’re ready to move to a formal industrial action ballot, continued council inaction risks strike action in Barnet as early as this autumn, which would mean bin collections and street cleansing grinding to a halt and the real prospect of fly-tipping building up across the borough.

“This result couldn’t be clearer. Not a single member who voted backed the council’s offer. We’ve asked the council for urgent talks — we’d much rather resolve this at the table than take it further. But if the council keeps standing behind Capita instead of doing right by the workers who kept this borough running, residents need to understand where that leads: a strike this autumn, bins left uncollected, and fly-tipping piling up across Barnet. That’s entirely avoidable, and it’s in the council’s hands to avoid it.”

The dispute follows a payroll error under former contractor Capita, which left overtime out of holiday pay calculations for staff who regularly worked it, including depot workers in waste, recycling, green waste and street cleaning.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Barnet UNISON represents around 3,000 members working for the London Borough of Barnet and associated employers.

Contact: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk