“No stone left unturned” What is The Barnet Group (TBG)? Number 7: Part Three

Ever since we published our article called Three Chief Executives and a Plumber, we have been inundated with questions about The Barnet Group (TBG).

Barnet UNISON published three animations which were put together with the help of our Barnet UNISON reps in TBG

Here is Animation Number Three which we noticed someone was watching it on a bus.


After watching this animation we strongly recommend you reading our article Three Chief Executives and a Plumber, here https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2024/10/18/barnet-council-the-tale-of-three-chief-executives-and-one-plumber/

End.

 

 

 

 

“No stone left unturned” What is The Barnet Group (TBG)? Number 6: Part Two

Ever since we published our article called Three Chief Executives and a Plumber, we have been inundated with questions about The Barnet Group (TBG).

Barnet UNISON published three animations which were put together with the help of our Barnet UNISON reps in TBG

Here is Animation Number Two which appears to have been screened in London Docklands.


After watching this animation we strongly recommend you reading our article Three Chief Executives and a Plumber, here https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2024/10/18/barnet-council-the-tale-of-three-chief-executives-and-one-plumber/

End.

Pay Up now – cleaners not being paid London Living Wage

Barnet UNISON had tried unsuccessfully to convince Labour controlled Barnet Council to bring back the cleaning service in-house earlier this year. If they have had brought Cleaning back in-house which is a service which is predominantly carried out by black female Barnet UNISON members they would have made a powerful statement to a workforce that is often overlooked when it comes to consideration for insourcing.

Last week Barnet UNISON spoke to some of our cleaners to check that they are receiving the correct London Living Wage increase of £13.15.

Barnet UNISON discovered that they were NOT being paid the correct rate and we have written to Norse Cleaning and Barnet Council to ask that they are paid the correct rate, and they receive their backdated payments.

We have been given an assurance that the error will be rectified. We will wait to see our members payslips later this month.

Earlier this year our cleaners were informed there were changes to their annual leave they came to Barnet UNISON to explain. The letter was not well written and difficult to understand but we finally sorted it out and made sure that none of our members were going to lose their annual leave because of the changes.

Barnet UNISON takes its responsibilities seriously and will never shirk having difficult conversations with employers it’s what we should do.

End.

Barnet UNISON consultative ballot for care workers

 

13 February 2024

Dear colleague,

We want you to participate in this consultative ballot to make it clear to senior managers just how strongly you feel about your pay.

We will be letting senior managers know the results of the ballot, so this is your chance to make a difference. If enough people vote yes, then it will not be your last chance and we may progress to balloting our members officially about your willingness to take strike action.

During the COVID pandemic you put your lives and the lives of your families/ loved ones on the line to keep members of the public safe. It took a long time for you to then receive an uplift in your pay, terms and conditions….and it was not enough.

In any case the small gains you made in pay were smashed away by the cost-of-living crisis.

What can The Barnet Group afford? Perhaps we should ask the question differently – You have been identified as essential workers; can any employer afford the cost of you not doing your job?

What you must do now?

If your workplace setting has a UNISON rep, you should ask them for your ballot paper. Your rep should be checking with you that the address on the envelope matches your current home address. If we did go on to carry out an official ballot, the letter would go to your home address. We need to know we have your correct details. Complete the ballot paper and hand it back to your UNISON rep.

If your workplace has no UNISON rep, the ballot paper will be posted to you directly. Please complete the ballot paper and put it back in the pre-paid envelope and post it back to us.

Your ballot paper needs to reach us by 5pm 23rd February 2024

 

Yours Sincerely

 

John Burgess                                  Patrick Hunter                           Helen Davies

Barnet UNISON                               Barnet UNISON                         Barnet UNISON

Branch Secretary              TBG Assistant Branch Secretary                Branch Chair

 

 

 

 

Bringing Services Home – Barnet UNISON campaign

 

Barnet UNISON is proud to announce that we are promoting UNISON Bringing Services Home campaign.

As a branch we have had more than our share of outsourcing. The easy Council experiment was a spectacular failure. It cost more money (yes, we told them it would!) and it did not lead to better services.

In May 2022, Barnet Labour Party won the election with a massive majority and one of their priorities was “Review of contracted out services, in the context of the new administration’s aspiration to bring privatised services back in-house.”

Last year Barnet Labour Party brought back one of the big contracts with Capita and other services on the other Capita contract have been coming back in-house.

The Council is going through a period of healing from the badly advised outsourcing ideology which dominated our Council for over a decade.

Today Barnet UNISON has written to all senior council officers responsible for outsourced contracts seeking a meeting to discuss how and when they are going to review the outsourced service.

Barnet UNISON also want to deal with the Ethnicity Pay Gap which the outsourcing easy Council ideology promoted by always securing the outsourcing option for services which are largely provided by Black workers e.g.

  1. NSL: Parking Services
  2. ISS: Catering Services
  3. Your Choice Barnet: Social Care services
  4. Norse: Cleaning services
  5. Blue 9: Security Services.

All the above services were outsourced under the Tories.

Barnet UNISON positively supports the statement of UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:

“Black workers make a vital contribution to the health and care sector but are all too often at the bottom of the pay scale as care workers, porters, healthcare assistants and catering staff. They frequently face shocking discrimination, threatening their health, job security and life chances.”

This why Barnet UNISON is determined to work with the Labour Administration to bring back these services into the Council thus enabling real life meaningful changes for a workforce that is often invisible and often low paid and without occupational sick pay.

End.

 

London Living Wage Week: Barnet UNISON message to employers is “Pay Up Now!”

London Living Wage Week: Barnet UNISON message to employers is:

“Pay Up Now!”

 

This week is London Living Wage for more details of the campaign please go to  https://www.livingwage.org.uk/living-wage-week

 

 

As soon as Barnet UNISON heard the new rate had changed from £11.95 to £13.15 an hour we contacted the Leader of Barnet Council, Chief Executive of Barnet Council and Chief Executive of The Barnet Group to ask what they are doing to ensure that all contractors adopt the new pay rate.

Last week we heard that the Chief Executive of The Barnet Group has sent a message to staff stating:
“We have made a commitment to pay the London living wage if we can afford to, to comply with the Living Wage Foundation accreditation it needs to be implemented by 1st May 2024.”

We already know from a survey of our members that pay is the one biggest issues. We are in the worst Cost Of Living Crisis in 76 years, things are not getting better, they are getting worse.

Barnet UNISON will shortly be conducting a mass consultation pay ballot with our members which will ask two questions.

1. Do you think you should wait until 1 May 2024, or should you be given the new pay rate now?

2. If you want the pay now and management refuse to pay, are you prepared to take strike action? Yes or No?

The choice of what we do next will be from our members. We are a branch that does support its members as we saw last year with the Barnet Ten strikes and now, we have social workers on strike about pay.

Whatever happens, you the members will decide what we do next.

We will be organising meetings in workplaces and a big online meeting to discuss this issue.

If you want to book a meeting on pay or would like more information about the mass consultation pay ballot email us at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk