As we approach Council elections, our members are asking if there will be a political change here at Barnet Council and if so, what it would mean for them.
It is now 20 years since Labour handed back power to the Tories in Barnet Council. Back then it was a very different time, and the Tories were not keen on outsourcing. They appeared to enjoy running the services themselves.
Things changed around 2008.
This is when easyCouncil was presented as the future for delivering Council services. This approach was promoted by a succession of consultants who were richly rewarded with lucrative contracts. It would be fair to say Barnet Council was “consultant dependent”, no decisions could be made without first paying a consultant 100’s of thousands of pounds of public money.
“The One Barnet Consultant’s bill hits £6.3 million” http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-one-barnet-consultants-bill-hits-63.html
Easycouncil became One Barnet, which enabled the mass outsourcing sausage machine to churn out report after report, all extolling the virtues of outsourcing and undermining the hard work of the in-house staff.
Fast forward 14 years and there appears to be growing anger towards the Government over the alleged breaches of Covid rules at its heart. There is even speculation that previously safe Tory Councils could be at risk.
If there was political change in Barnet would it be a Labour or Lib- Labour Coalition?
And if so what would that mean for our outsourced members all of whom are desperate to return back under direct management of Barnet Council?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for NSL the Parking Services contractor?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for Capita and the two contracts?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for the Catering Contractor ISS?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for Barnet Education Learning Skills (BELS)?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for Housing workers working for Barnet Homes?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for 600 care workers working for Your Choice Barnet?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for the cleaning contractor Norse?
What will a change in political leadership mean for our Barnet UNISON members working for the security contractor Blue Nine?
All the above services used to be provided by Barnet Council and many of the outsourced services are frontline services run by key workers clapped as heroes during the pandemic.
UNISON policy is for all these services to be run in-house and that they will publicly support Barnet UNISON to try to campaign to bring these services back under direct control of the Council.
The other big concern for Council workers and the low paid is PAY.
The National Pay Campaign was a failure and whilst UNISON begins the work to address the massive deficit between the union and its membership nationally what does this mean now?
Our low paid members are facing serious financial hardship and do not have the luxury of waiting for another national pay campaign.
What is low pay in our depot based Street Scene Services ?
A Street Cleansing operative earns between £11.31 to £12.03 and hour annual salary £22,575
A Bin worker loader or a Gardener earns between £11.82 to £12.47 and hour annual salary £ 23,400
A Passenger Transport Driver, Gardener Driver, Town Keeper earns between £12.24 to £12.91 and hour annual salary £24,245
A coach escort, skilled gardener driver, tractor driver earns between £12.69 to £13.39 and hour annual salary £25,128
A LGV driver operative, LGV Tractor drive earns between £13.15 to £14.12 and hour annual salary £26,508
A Bin worker driver earns between £14.12 to £15.72 and hour annual salary £29,502
Barnet UNISON had its first Emergency Cost of Living Crisis meeting on 30 March 2022. The meeting agreed to progress the claim and bring the full proposal to a vote of the second Cost of Living Crisis meeting on Tuesday 26 April at 6 pm.
What will a change in political leadership mean for our low paid Barnet UNISON members working for Barnet Council?
The question on the lips of these workers is which political party will publicly join UNISON in advocating the return of outsourced services back into Barnet Council and to meet to discuss how to end pay poverty for low paid workers?
End.
