Day two of redundancy consultation across the Council workforce and still no responses from the employer to the UNISON proposals where the Council could and should be taking control of its spend.
This article is about economies of scale and how they could make savings which could prevent redundancies and service cuts.
Read on.
30 years ago, there was on Council with one Chief Executive and a smaller senior management team.
It was a larger Council because all the services that are currently outsourced such as Housing (Barnet Homes) Social Care (Your Choice Barnet) Parking Enforcement (NSL), School Catering (ISS), Cleaning (Norse) Education Services for Schools (BELS) Customer Services, Revs and Bens, Payroll, IT (Capita) used to be part of the Councils workforce.
12 years ago, Barnet Council under the Tories Administration created a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) which is 100% owned by Barnet Council.
They named it The Barnet Group (TBG).
The purpose of the company was to exploit workers by using their labour to provide essential services but deny those workers of the terms and conditions of a Council worker including the right to join the council Pension Scheme.
There are two companies within TBG. Barnet Homes and Your Choice Barnet.
In 2020, Barnet Council created another LATC for education services for schools called Barnet Education and Learning Skills (BELS) following the contract failure of a contractor who pulled out during Covid.
Both these LATCs are owned by Barnet Council.
The UNISON economies of scale proposal were for Barnet Council to conduct a review of back office services across all three organisations.
UNISON knows from some simple research published in our article “No stone left unturned” Number 10: Barnet Homes the elephant in the room. https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2024/12/04/no-stone-left-unturned-number-10-barnet-homes-the-elephant-in-the-room/ that savings were inevitable with the ending of the outsourced Housing Services. UNISON has continued to campaign for an end to the appalling employment practices of both organisations by bringing services in-house which is in line with UNISONs National Policy ‘Bringing Services Home’.
If the Council is determined to maintain the two organisations it at the very least should end the waste in terms of running three back offices and run only one.
Whilst the deliberate underfunding of Councils rests solely with Tory Governments there are still opportunities for Barnet Council to take responsibility for things they do control, and this is one of them.
Barnet UNISON is now representing members across the workforce who are at risk of redundancy. In redundancy consultations the employer must demonstrate they are making all efforts to control spend to avoid redundancy.
To date we have not heard anything back.
End.
The question on the lips or our members is why Barnet Labour Party is promoting anti-union tactics using Tory legislation i.e. Trade Union Act 2016, the Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Bill and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022 whilst at the same time the Labour Party during the General Election is promoting “Delivering A New Deal for Working People.”
