Category: UNISON Campaign

“Is ‘Low pay, poor terms & conditions’ good for social care services in Barnet?”

In the space of seven days two groups of social care workers are facing yet more attacks on their terms & conditions. Both sets of care workers used to work for Barnet Council.

Your Choice Barnet is the Local Authority Trading Company which took over the Council provision of support services to Adults with a Learning Disability and Adults with a Physical Disability. It is has a massive hole in its budget (£1million+) and predictably is looking to make staff pay for the crisis. This crisis is entirely of London Borough of Barnet’s making as it is the sole owner of the Company and funds £5.3million of the services provided out of a total budget of £5.6million.

The unions have been invited to a meeting this Thursday 30^th January morning to be given the news about the benchmarking exercise. Consultation begins that morning and management’s current position is that it will be for 45 days.

Similarly Fremantle ex-Barnet staff are facing a similar cut to their wages. Having lost some 30% on their terms and conditions 2008, the Fremantle Trust is saying they need to take the scythe to their wages some more and cut their wages by an average of 20-25%! If implemented most of Fremantle care staff will be earning below the London Living wage. Even Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, promotes the idea of no Londoners earning below this threshold.

There is a crisis in care and the working conditions of staff in this sector. We want Fremantle and Your Choice Barnet workers to know they can work in this sector and make a living.

UNISON has organised a meeting on Tuesday 4 February at 6 pm at the Greek Cypriot Centre, Britannia Road N12 9RU, North Finchley for all of our members who work for Fremantle & Your Choice Barnet

Over the weekend a number of our members have contacted our branch about a letter from Fremantle which detailed their rationale proposing to make cuts of between 26% – 13 % to some of the lowest paid workers in our community.

You can view the details of the proposals here

It is clear in the letter that Fremantle are looking to carry out consultation quickly.

UNISON has responded by organising a UNISON meeting on Tuesday 4 February at 6 pm at the Greek Cypriot Centre, Britannia Road N12 9RU, North Finchley for all of our Fremantle members on

Last June 2013 Fremantle signed a ten year contract with Barnet Council

There was some concern raised about the award here and here however the Council decided a deal was a deal and signed the contract.

Last week Richard Cornelius (Leader of Barnet Council), spoke about the decision of Barnet Council to apply a London Living Wage (LLW) rate of £8.80 per hour for all employees. He added:

“It is something we want to be part of,” he told The Press. “People should be paid enough to live on if they are going to work for us. It is something we have aspired to do for a long time.”

Barnet UNISON wholeheartedly agrees with the phrase “People should be paid enough to live on” in particular something needs to be done to address the relentless attack on the morale and well being of care workers. They have a trusted & critical role in the safe provision of care to those in need. They are some of the lowest paid workers in our society and feeling the cost of living crisis more than most.

Today Barnet UNISON submitted a London Living Wage proposal to Fremantle Trust to view our letter click here.

This is part of our wider campaign to write to all contractors delivering services on behalf of Barnet Council.

NSL is a private parking contractor delivering parking enforcement in Barnet.

Earlier this month UNISON held a meeting with NSL to discuss our LLW proposal and other terms & conditions issues.  UNISON said that in less than 18 months after transfer from the Council to NSL, almost 66% of staff had left.

At the meeting UNISON informed NSL that the majority of their members are now on NSL terms & conditions approximately 33% less than the ex Barnet staff who transferred over in May 2012.

UNISON members on NSL terms & condition are deeply unhappy with low pay and trying to keep up with the ever increasing cost of living. The only way members can try to deal with low pay is to try and get overtime, but to get overtime you need to demonstrate you issue enough parking tickets. Both NSL and Barnet Council will claim that there are no parking targets…..but the fact is if you don’t issue a lot of tickets on your regular shift you are highly unlikely to get overtime. You work it out….!

NSL told UNISON we had to go back to the Council for the decision as to whether NSL are allowed to pay the LLW.

Last week Richard Cornelius (Leader of Barnet Council), spoke about the decision of Barnet Council to apply a London Living Wage (LLW) rate of £8.80 per hour for all employees. He added:

“It is something we want to be part of,” he told The Press. “People should be paid enough to live on if they are going to work for us. It is something we have aspired to do for a long time.”

We contacted the Council and they said they would come back to us.

 

We are waiting……..