Breaking News: Covid Plus Joint Trade Union proposals

Dear Barnet UNISON members

The following Joint Trade Union proposals were sent to Barnet Council on Wednesday 4 November 2020.

We will update members as soon as we have a response.

UNISON National issue this statement on schools which you can view here

 

Joint Trade Union statement

COVID Plus. Front line workers

For the purposes of this proposal frontline means workers who cannot work from home.

  1. All staff who are deemed clinically vulnerable or extremely clinically vulnerable to stay at home for lockdown on full pay.
  2. All frontline staff to receive a monthly COVID payment for the duration of the Pandemic in recognition of the important role they playing in the provision of frontline services and the simple fact frontline workers can’t work from home and have to bear the costs of travel and navigate the risks of travel on public transport.
  3. All frontline workers to have weekly COVID tests.
  4. All frontline workers to receive full pay if they have to isolate or are unable to work due to COVID.
  5. All frontline workers to have unlimited access to counselling services during this pandemic in recognition of the mental stress working with COVID brings to this workforce.
  6. If staff have to work from home due to fact their children are sent home from their school due to COVID then they should remain on full pay.
  7. All COVID related absences whilst recorded should not be used for sickness absence recording.
  8. Any staff having to make emergency visits abroad to visit a dying relative or attend a funeral should receive full pay during the quarantine period.

COVID Plus for home workers.

  1. All staff who are deemed clinically vulnerable or extremely clinically vulnerable to stay at home for lockdown on full pay.
  2. All workers to have unlimited access to counselling services during this pandemic in recognition of the mental stress working with COVID brings to this workforce.

 

  1. If staff have to work from home due to fact their children are sent home from their school due to COVID then they should remain on full pay and it should be recognised that the worker has a reduced capacity to carry out their work duties.
  2. All COVID related absences whilst recorded should not be used for sickness absence recording.
  3. Any staff having to make emergency visits abroad to visit a dying relative or attend a funeral should receive full pay during the quarantine period.
  4. To recognise the damaging effect working from home has on both physical activity levels and mental health. Also to recognise that the normal practice of leaving home to travel to and from work also of travelling between venues for meetings are now lost to the home worker leading to a more compressed working routine with little opportunity to leave the home. Therefore give a one hour paid daily break to home working staff in addition to their lunch break to enable them to have down time from their computer screens and so that they can physically leave their home for a walk or partake in some form of exercise.
  5. Protocol for structuring virtual meetings to enable time away from the screen e.g. starting meetings at quarter past the hour implying that there should be a 15min break before the meeting starts.
  6. Supervision to incorporate questions relating to mental health wellbeing and physical health as well as checking on the home set up (it should not be assumed home set up is constantly the same).
  7. For a designated person to randomly contact 10 workers per week to find out from them their experience with respect to supervision, welfare checks etc.
  8. Staff with children at home should be given a designated amount of time to dedicate to their child’s learning and leisure.
  9. Key workers working from home who have a clinically or extremely clinically vulnerable child should be allowed to continue working from home if schools are closed but only open to key worker’s children.

Stay safe

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON.

What is the difference between working for TBG Flex and having a Barnet Homes Contract ?

 

TBG Flex Pension Scheme query submitted to the Pensions Regulator – Barnet UNISON

If you joined the Barnet Group after 2017 you don’t actually work for either Your Choice Barnet [YCB] or Barnet Homes – Your employment contract is with TBG Flex.

So, what is TBG Flex?

TBG Flex is an employment company set up by the the Barnet Group with the purpose of not allowing entry in to the Local Government Pension Scheme [LGPS], giving employees inferior Terms and Conditions, lower Pay  and longer working hours than staff who were employed before 2017.

For instance….

TBG Flex -The Basic working week for TBG Flex Staff is 37.5hrs

For staff employed before 201736hrs

 

TBG Flex Annual Leave is capped at a maximum of 25days for workers or 30 days for Directors and the CEO.[excluding Bank Holidays]

For staff employed before 2017 – at least 29 days for all staff. [excluding Bank Holidays]

 

TBG Flex Sickness – For TBG Flex staff – capped at 2 months full pay and then Statutory Sick Pay[SSP] of £95.85 per week for a maximum of 28 weeks.

For staff employed before 2017 – Sick Pay is capped at 6 months full pay and then 6 months half pay.

TBG Flex Overtime – For TBG Flex – No overtime rate – except for Christmas day which is paid at double time. The same applies for workers in YCB who were forcibly ‘opted out’ of Nationally Agreed Pay.

For staff employed before 2017Monday to Saturday Time and a half –  Sundays and Public and Extra Statutory holidays Double time (min 2 hours). 

 

TBG Flex Pension – upto 5% paid in to your pension [matching your contribution] as an employers contribution [10% for Senior managers, Directors and the CEO] – for every £1 invested by the worker TBG Flex invest £1.

For staff employed before 2017 – Local Government Pension Scheme – up to 6% contribution from the worker is matched by a 19% contribution from the employer – for every £1 invested by the worker the employer invests £3.50.

 

TBG Flex Continuation of Service [with other Local Government employers] – No

For staff employed before 2017 Yes – which means your accrued Annual Leave, Sickness Benefits, maternity pay and Pension is transferred to the new employer. This also means that your continuous service with other Local Government employers is recognised in relation to redundancy payments.

TBG Flex Pay – Evaluations of jobs reached by using the ‘HAY’ pay model – this evaluation scheme, in general  ‘rewards’ jobs at the lower and medium end [most workers] with lower salaries than Barnet Homes contracted workers and at the higher end [senior management] with higher salaries.

Any Pay Rise has to be signed off by the Barnet Group Board.

For staff employed before 2017 in Barnet Homes –  Evaluations of jobs reached by using the ‘Greater London Provincal Council’ [GLPC] pay model – this evaluation scheme, in general  ‘rewards’ jobs at the lower and medium end [most workers] with slightly higher salaries than TBG Flex contracted workers and is consistent in ‘rewards’ offered across the business/council. 

Any Pay Rise is Nationally Negotiated and implemented as soon as agreed.

N.B. This does NOT apply for workers in YCB who were forcibly ‘opted out’ of Nationally agreed pay –  they have NEVER received a payrise since YCB’s inception.

And the list goes on – TBG Flex workers have less Maternity Leave and are paid less should they be made redundant.

This is not acceptable – Barnet Homes contracted workers and TBG Flex workers do the same job and we are all paid by the London Borough Of Barnet

– We should all be on Nationally agreed Pay and Terms and Conditions – 

Help us achieve that – Join Barnet UNISON – Help us fight for Local Government Terms and Conditions, Pay and working hours in the Barnet Group

– FOR ALL WORKERS! –

Our fight to end low pay

There is definitely a mood in the air here in Barnet.

 I can’t put my finger on it but it is there.

 In the last few weeks our reps have been going into workplaces and recruiting both members and reps in services where staff have been working throughout COVID, services such as care homes, waste and recycling, street cleansing, housing repairs and gas services, parking enforcement and passenger transport to name but a few.

One of the major issues is that they are all low paid workers and they quite rightly feel they are not being paid enough, especially when you consider they have worked on throughout all the restraints caused by the virus.

For the past six months these workers have been directed into the COVID workplace by senior managers all working from the comfort of their homes.

Being able to work from is not an option for these workers.

While senior management are saving money on transport costs because they can work from home these workers are paying the rising costs of public transport to get to their workplaces.

 Today was no exception. We met a group of workers in the Repairs and Gas Service who had recently TUPED into the Barnet Group from Mears. There were many serious issues raised, all of which can and must be dealt with by our union.

 What was great about the meeting was that this previously un-unionised workforce quickly grasped the importance of union membership in the workplace. Not only have they already begun to recruit the whole of the service, they have understood the need to have local reps and we recruited two union reps and one Health and Safety rep.

I never get tired of working with members and today reminded me of what we can do if we have the confidence and support of the workforce.

Today is but the beginning I sense things are going to get interesting here in Barnet over the next six to nine months.

 Solidarity

John Burgess

Branch Secretary, Barnet UNISON.

Pay Rise for Some – NOT for others? Must be The Barnet Group

UNISON been informed that if you are a Barnet Homes Contracted member of staff that you should receive the 2.75% nationally agreed pay rise in your October pay – this will be backdated to April 2020.

If you are a TBG Flex Contracted member of staff working in Barnet Homes – the pay rise your Barnet Homes colleagues receive as part of their Nationally agreed Pay and Terms and Conditions, will be brought to the TBG Flex Board for hopeful approval the next time it sits – IF AGREED by the Board you will receive the 2.75% increase, which should be back dated to April – As yet UNISON has not been notified as to when the TBG Flex Board will meet to make this decision.

If you are a TBG Flex member of staff working for Your Choice Barnet – The Barnet Group have informed UNISON that you will NOT receive any Pay Rise.

If you are a Your Choice Barnet contracted member of Staff – The Barnet Group have informed UNISON that you will NOT receive any Pay Rise.

If you are a Your Choice Care [ex Fremantle] contracted member of staff – The Barnet Group have informed UNISON that you will NOT receive any Pay Rise.

UNISON is waiting for The Barnet Group to advise UNISON on whether staff in Your Choice Care will receive the London Living Wage as a minimum.

This highlights the shocking discrepancies in Pay and Terms and Conditions in the Barnet Group – WE ALL ultimately work for the London Borough of Barnet – WE SHOULD ALL be on Nationally Agreed Pay and Terms and Conditions with access to the Local Government Pension Scheme and a standard 36hr week.

Please, please, talk to your colleagues about the Pay inequality in The Barnet Group and get them to join Barnet UNISON –

HELP US HELP YOU TO FIGHT FOR EQUAL PAY AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN THE BARNET GROUP!!!!!

 

When is a Council Worker not a Council Worker?

When is a Council Worker not a Council Worker?

The Barnet Group is a Local Authority Trading Company [LATC] fully owned and funded by the London Borough of Barnet to provide Housing and Care Services on behalf of Barnet Council to Barnet Residents.

Barnet Homes Contracted staff [pre 2016] – Have nationally agreed Terms and Conditions and access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Your Choice Barnet [YCB] Contracted staff – were forcibly opted out of nationally agreed pay which included a 9% cut to their wages.

YCC – Your Choice Care – consists of staff [many of them originally LBB employees] TUPE into the Barnet Group are not even paid the London Living Wage.

TBG FLEX –  an employment company within the Barnet Group – Was initiated in 2016 to drive down T&Cs for new starters working for Barnet Homes and Your Choice Barnet.

It has been a success!!!

FAT CAT PROFITS

TBG Flex employees have:

No access to the Local Government Pension Scheme. [But do have access to a much inferior pension scheme….Thanks!]

Work longer hours that their colleagues in Barnet Homes or LBB.

Are paid less than colleagues in Barnet Homes or LBB.

Have less Annual Leave than colleagues in Barnet Homes or LBB.

Have no continuation of service should they wish to work for another Local Authority.

YCB workers and TBG Flex contracted workers in YCB or YCC have the added bonus that they do not even get the cost of living yearly increase which TBG Flex contracted staff receive in Barnet Homes.

So when is a Council Worker not a Council worker?

When they work in the Barnet Group in YCB or YCC or have a TBG Flex Contract 

THAT’S WHEN!

Help us to stamp out the inequality in the Barnet Group 

Join us in campaigning for all Barnet Group staff to have access to the Local Government Pension Scheme, have the same pay and grading, sick pay, annual Leave and Terms and Conditions as our colleagues in Barnet Homes.

JOIN UNISON

HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!!!

“IMPORTANT Update: Guidance and template letter for vulnerable employees (England)”

28 May 2020.

Please read the latest guidance provided by UNISON

This guidance covers:

1 Clinically extremely vulnerable employees (people at high risk)

2 Clinically vulnerable employees (people at moderate risk)

3 Employees living with / caring for the vulnerable or extremely vulnerable

4 Black employees

5 Older employees (over 60)

6 Employees who have childcare responsibilities

7 Employees who are feeling anxious about returning to work

8 Template letter to head teacher

Click on the link to read the guidance

https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2020/05/Guidance-and-template-letter-for-vulnerable-employees.pdf

If you need any help with this advice please contact the branch office at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

 

 

 

Barnet Homes UNISON Zoom meeting

Please join the first Barnet Homes UNISON Zoom meeting

Thursday the 28th of May 1pm.

We will be discussing the latest proposals in regard to the restructure of housing services.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87132734583?pwd=RGdmaVI3UlFHN1kyYTdWR0RBdVhOQT09

 

Meeting ID: 871 3273 4583

Password: 139984

One tap mobile

+13462487799,,87132734583#,,1#,139984# US (Houston)

+16465588656,,87132734583#,,1#,139984# US (New York)

Breaking News: Barnet UNISON ending Lockdown survey results

 

We asked our members (most of whom are working from home) one question.

“Do you feel that it is safe for you to go back to work?”

94% of our School UNISON members felt it was not safe.

85% of our Capita UNISON members felt it was not safe.

79% of our Barnet Council UNISON members felt it was not safe.

79% of our Barnet Homes members felt it was not safe

 

 

“COVID-19: How to make your workplace safe” Zoom meeting

Barnet UNISON as part of our Know Your Rights at Work campaign are hosting a

ZOOM meeting with NEU and GMB entitled:

“COVID-19: How to make your workplace safe”

Wednesday 27 May 6pm

Guest Speaker: Janet Newsham, Chair Hazards Campaign, sitting member of Employment Tribunal for past 25 years.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82640214991?pwd=cW01ZzhtTTJoeStjNWVVcGJSaEhqQT09

Meeting ID: 826 4021 4991

Password: 363400

 

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