Category: Local

The vote which was won last night 32 votes to 31 was an amendment to the original motion submitted by Labour Councillor Rebecca Challice which said:

“Delete report recommendations 2-5 and replace with:

2. Council and the Children, Education, Libraries & Safeguarding (CELS) Committee actively supports the ongoing discussions with Brookhill, St Margaret’s and Hampden Way Nursery Schools but recognises that they need more time to resolve budgetary issues and ensure a mutually agreed and sustainable future. Council and the CELS Committee therefore instructs officers to work with these three nursery schools to achieve this and report back to the CELS Committee for a final decision.

3. Council and the CELS Committee supports and agrees the Moss Hall nursery school business plan proposal that will save LB Barnet £160,000 each year from 2016/17, and instructs officers to implement the proposal.”

This means Moss Hall Nursery is now safe for the time being as their proposal has been accepted.

 

Future for St Margaret’s, Brookhill and Hampden Way Nursery Schools

The key sentence is “instructs officers to work with these three nursery schools to achieve this and report back to the CELS Committee for a final decision” the next CELS meeting is on 12 January 2015 see here

Next meeting

The Joint Trade Unions are meeting with their members on Thursday 13 November 2014 at 4.15 at Hampden Way Nursery School to discuss how they will be involved in developing a plan which secures a future for all three schools and the community they proudly serve.

 

 

Earlier this week the Trade Unions and the Council agreed the following joint statement here

Dear Colleague

Good News

UNISON has welcomed the news that the negotiations have been extended in order to ensure the grading of jobs has been completed before the final Council proposals are formally submitted to the Trade Unions. UNISON is also pleased the proposed changes to the redundancy have been withdrawn……read more here

No so good news?

Apologies for the lack of information about the negotiations which have been taking place over the last three weeks. Some of the delays have simply been as a consequence of requests made by the Trade Unions in response to the initial Council proposal submitted to the Trade Unions on 9 October 2014. Whilst it I understand that our members are anxious to know what is being proposed it is important to understand that any proposed changes will have an impact on almost 5,000 staff (including maintained school support staff). This is why the Trade Unions are concerned and have requested further information in order to understand which groups of staff may be affected and how.

Over the next few weeks the Trade Unions are busy on the job evaluation panels after which we will be back in talks with the Council over the details of the Council proposals.

 

In the meanwhile you can view the 3 November 2014 Joint Communication on the UNISON website HERE or on the Council web sites here www.barnet.gov.uk/unified-reward

The following message was sent to Barnet UNISON earlier today.

“We recognise that Barnet UNISON Your Choice Barnet care workers have overwhelmingly voted to reject the latest proposal to reduce the pay cut imposed on them from 9.5% to 7.9%.

We know that these care workers care deeply about the residents who use the services provided by YCB and understand that their concerns are not only about pay but also about the quality of services that are provided.

We wish to express our disappointment that Barnet Council, as the sole shareholder of the Barnet Group and its subsidiary company Your Choice Barnet, has repeatedly refused to come to the negotiating table with Barnet UNISON and ACAS to try and resolve this ongoing dispute.

The Barnet Tories are not honouring their original decision, made at Cabinet Resources Committee 24 May 2011 that “Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.” (p57 of the Business Case).

Our message to UNISON YCB members is that if we were in control of the Council we would not put political ideology over the needs of vulnerable adults and their families and would be instructing senior officers of the Council to bring this high profile front line service back in house.

We will continue to lobby Barnet’s Tory councillors to do the right thing and bring this service back in house.”

Barnet Labour Group

 

UNISON members in YCB have voted overwhelmingly again to reject the improved pay cut offer.

The turnout was good – 75% and 72% of those voted to reject a 7.9% pay cut (instead of 9.5%).

Clearly our members think they are worth more than that. This is understandable at a time when the news has been dominated recently by the effect of low pay on the economy.

YCB care workers are determined that they should receive a ‘fair days’ pay for the work that they do.

Please continue to show your support and solidarity with these workers by signing this petition here

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-ongoing-destruction-of-services-for-adults-with-disabilities-in-barnet

Background.

You can find out more about the campaign by clicking on this link here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1415

 

To view full report please click here

Recommendations

1. Barnet UNISON strongly recommends that in-house provision is included in each option.

2. It is essential that a comprehensive risk register is compiled immediately and forms part of the public and staff consultation so that the risks can be fully understood in assessing the options.

3. Assurances are required to both the public and staff that the wider role of volunteers is only a short-term measure.

4. A full equality impact assessment is undertaken to identify the effect of the Library options and the operational proposals

The Joint Trade Unions have set up the following Petition which we are encouraging everyone to support.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-outstanding-nursery-schools-in-the-london-borough-of-barnet

Moss Hall Nursery facing 50 per cent funding cut

http://www.barnet-today.co.uk/news.cfm?id=11019

Campaigners launch petition to save nursery in Barnet

http://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2014-10-20/teachers-petition-to-save-moss-hall-nursery-from-budget-cuts/

Save Moss Hall Nursery From Drastic Proposals

http://www.change.org/p/save-moss-hall-nursery

 

 

17 October 2014

Dear Colleagues

The Council will announce the options under consideration for the Library Service on the 20th of October. These plans were originally to be disclosed to Library staff at meeting to be held at NLBP.

UNISON welcomed this meeting as an indication that the consultation process with staff would be conducted in an equable and meaningful manner.

However the Council has since decided to call off this meeting and replace it with a series of onsite meetings on the 20th of October, each lasting half an hour.

By calling off the meeting of all Library staff the Council are;

· Not treating Library workers in an equal manner to our colleagues in other Council services, who have been able to attend service-wide meetings on their futures.

· Hampering the provision of Trade Union representation at Consultation meetings with staff. It will be difficult for UNISON reps to attend each of the on-site meetings, due to other commitments as we deal with a number of Council initiatives and an increased level of casework. This is coupled with a reluctance by the Council to release reps for trade union duties.

· Holding meetings at several sites may distort the message the Council wishes to impart, as colleagues at one site receive the news and pass on their interpretations to staff at other sites. It is in the interest of all parties concerned that this does not happen.

• The half hour allocated to each meeting is too short for sufficient explanation by the Council and will not provide adequate time for staff to raise questions.

UNISON have called for the reinstatement of the all-staff meeting but have been rebuffed by the Council. Therefore we are raising it as a point of dispute in the Council’s highest industrial relations committee.

Yours sincerely,

Hugh Jordan John Burgess

Libraries Convenor                                                                 Branch Secretary

 

Branch Health and Safety Officer

On Monday 8 September 2014 UNISON members working for Capita Re Highways section were informed that statutory redundancy consultation would commence on 10 September 2014. Capita Re have carried out a review of the Highways function against the output specification that forms part of the contract with the London borough of Barnet.

The proposal was that they can make efficiencies by changing work practices and use of technology alongside the need to reduce costs circa £65k with a reduction in the Highways fee by Barnet Council as from July 2014.

Capita Re currently employs 284 staff.

The current staffing establishment for Highways is 23 staff and all of them have been issued at risk of redundancy letters.

The proposal seeks to make 10 redundancies and create six new posts. However, the six new posts are not redeployment opportunities for the staff at risk.

Over the past few weeks meetings have been taking place with staff as they are having to go through an interview selection process.

UNISON has requested some detailed financial information about the proposed shortfall in funding and expressed concern about the ability of the service to deliver the service with reduced numbers of staff.

UNISON members have expressed concern and disappointment that when Barnet Council Cabinet Committee agreed to the award the DRS contract to Capita on Monday 24 June 2013 they did so in the knowledge that this was a contract which would grow and there would not be any redundancies.

As members have pointed out in Table 7.1 DRS Staff Numbers

of the report the Highways Teams are down to increase not decrease.

Update

Last week the Trade Unions were informed that Capita Re would be extending the consultation period. The reason being Capita Re had been summoned to attend the Environment Committee members briefing on 2 October at 7 pm Hendon Town Hall.

UNISON will be attending the above meeting in order to find out if there are any proposals which may mean the redundancy proposals will be withdrawn.

Urgent feedback on ACAS/Your Choice Barnet meeting  

Dear Colleagues

At our meeting on Monday 22 September at ACAS HQ UNISON raised a concern that Your Choice Barnet (YCB) was being unfairly treated by Barnet Council.

I am referring to the Pension employer contributions YCB has to make to all members of the Local Government Pension.

For council staff the Pension contributions can be broken down into three parts

Employee contribution variable % depending on salary level.

Employer contribution 14.5 % for future benefits.

Employer contribution 9.8% for past Pension Deficit  

The total amount paid by the employer equates to 24.3%.

Barnet UNISON has been investigating what has been happening in relation to Pension contributions since mass outsourcing started in early 2012.

What we have found is that YCB is having to pay 9.8% contribution towards the historic pension deficit accrued prior to outsourcing.

It is clear that this financial burden seriously inhibits the financial viability of YCB and does not reflect the true economic conditions for delivering the service.

In short the Council is imposing a cost on YCB which is not directly related to the service they are providing.

It is well documented that YCB is in financial difficulties otherwise why would they have had to attack low paid care workers on two occasions in the last 18 months.

To learn that the Council has chosen to impose another financial penalty on YCB when it has such a precarious financial situation is difficult to understand, which is why we have requested Barnet Council to remove this requirement.

Private sector being given favourable treatment.

Our investigations have revealed the following three private contractors, who won contracts to deliver services in Barnet, are not having to pay this 9.8% penalty.

NSL – Pension Fund Committee, 20 December 2011 at paragraph 6.3 it states:

“NSL will become an admitted body to the Pension Fund under a closed agreement. The agreement will be fully funded at the point of transfer and the contractor will pick up employer pension costs associated with future liabilities. Provision has been made in the business case both for the costs associated with a pension bond, and also for costs that the Council will retain in respect of the past deficit for these employees.”

Capita Re – Pension Fund Committee 9 September 2013 at paragraph 6.4 it states:

“The joint venture will pay the future contribution rate to meet any pension fund liabilities. The council has retained the element of the budget that pays for the repayment of the past service pension fund deficit.”

OSC – Pensions Fund Committee 18 March 2014 at paragraph 7.2 it states:

“Staff will transfer on a “fully funded basis”. This means that the pensions’ deficit will not transfer to OCS from Barnet in respect of these staff. The total deficit retained by Barnet has been calculated at £98k. £25k per annum needs to be retained from Adults and Communities budget to fund the repayment of the deficit over the lifetime of the contract.”

We are in the middle of a dispute over the 9.5% pay cut imposed on our members working for YCB. The knowledge that yet again the private sector is being treated more favourably than YCB is inexcusable.

If Barnet Council were to do the right thing and treat YCB like they have done with Capita, the 9.5% pay cut would be wiped out and the dispute would be over. It is that simple.

We have written to Barnet Council asking them to consider our request and do the right thing for the services and the loyal hard working low paid care staff who provide excellent services.