Branch Secretary Weekly Message Monday 24th August 2026
Monday 24 August 2026
Weekly Blog — speaking truth to power – A warning for every council worker
Something has been happening quietly in the Passenger Transport Service that every Barnet council worker needs to know about. It does not just affect Passenger Assistants. It sets a precedent that could affect any of us.
What has been going on
In 2017 a decision was taken — without any consultation with UNISON or GMB — that when Passenger Assistant posts became vacant through retirement or resignation, they would not be refilled with directly employed LBB staff. Instead, the work would be picked up by external providers.
Nobody announced this. Nobody brought it to a JNCC. No business case was published. No equality assessment was carried out. It just happened, post by post, year by year.
In January 2021 there were approximately 85 directly employed LBB Passenger Assistants. There are now 42. The work has not reduced. The service still runs over 100 routes that need Passenger Assistant support. The workers have simply been replaced.
We have now had this confirmed in writing by management. When we asked who is doing the work that LBB Passenger Assistants used to do, the answer came back: 61 workers employed by external private providers contracted by the Council.
That is not gap-filling. That is not flexible provision. That is outsourcing — and it has been done without any of the process that outsourcing requires.
Why this should worry you, wherever you work
This is not just a Passenger Transport story. The method matters.
Management found a way to run down an in-house workforce without ever formally proposing to outsource it. No Cabinet report saying we want to contract this service out. No consultation with the unions. No equality impact assessment on what it means for a low-paid, predominantly female workforce. Just a quiet decision to stop recruiting, and wait.
By the time anyone noticed, 60% of the Passenger Assistant function was being delivered by workers employed by private companies rather than by the Council.
Ask yourself this. What stops the same approach being used in your service? If management decided tomorrow to stop filling vacancies in your team and use contractors instead, this is now the precedent they would point to. UNISON is not prepared to let that stand unchallenged.
What UNISON has done and where we are
We have submitted a formal report to the highest level of joint negotiation with the Council — the JNCG, chaired by the Chief Executive. That report sets out the full picture: the workforce figures, the governance failures, the health and safety concerns, the breach of the Trade Union Engagement Framework the Council signed just last December.
We submitted that report in June. We are now in August. We have still not received a substantive response.
We have also formally asked management a question they have not answered: when did LBB last directly recruit a Passenger Assistant? The answer to that question will tell us exactly when the decision was made that this workforce would be wound down. We intend to find out.
This matter is going to JNCC as a formal agenda item. We are not dropping it.
What members can do
If you are a Passenger Assistant or Passenger Escort, or you know someone who is, please get in touch with the branch. Your experience of what has changed in this service matters and we want to hear it.
If you work in any other part of the Council and you have noticed posts in your team sitting vacant for long periods without being advertised, let us know. We want to understand whether what has happened in Passenger Transport is happening anywhere else.
The council workforce is strongest when we look out for each other. What happens to one group of workers today can happen to another group tomorrow.
Best wishes John Burgess Branch Secretary, Barnet UNISON