Barnet UNISON

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Please note community petition addressed to Capita Plc Chief Executive Paul Pindar.

To view and sign the petition click this link http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/capita-keep-our-jobs-in-barnet

Below are the details of the petition

“Dear Mr Pindar

As Chief Executive, you will be aware of the Capita Plc consultation with former Barnet Council staff starting on Monday 7 October 2013. You will know the Capita Plc proposal means hundreds of jobs are to be lost to Barnet, with no certainty that these will be recreated elsewhere in that community, resulting in a loss of local knowledge and another severe blow to the local economy that will have a negative impact on any remaining Council staff, residents and local traders. In the current economic climate this is unacceptable. I would ask that you directly intervene and provide a commitment that a new service solution is found that both protects and creates jobs in the community they serve.”

Why is this important?

In August 2013, Barnet Council signed a ten year £320 million contract with Capita Plc to take over the provision of the following services take over the running of the council’s back office services which includes customer services, human resources, finance and payroll, IT, revenues and benefits, estates, corporate procurement and commercial services.

Capita Plc proposed solution is to provide these services in Capita Call centres elsewhere in the UK which will ultimately lead to approximately 350 jobs losses to our community and upwards of 150 redundancies in Barnet.

We are passionate about local public services and believe people providing them have local knowledge and are accountable to the residents of Barnet. Not only that but local job losses will have a negative impact on our local economy as working people become jobless with a reduced income to spend in the local economy.

Information links

1. UNISON call on Capita to reverse mass redundancies in Barnet.  http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1273

2. Barnet UNISON Press Release: “From hard working families to ‘scroungers’ – Capita redundancies.  http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1272

3. Barnet Council publish Capita contract. http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1268

4. Barnet and Capita – some unusual contractual conditions?

http://spendmatters.co.uk/barnet-and-capita-some-unusual-contractual-conditions/

 

5. Union slams lack of transparency as Capita prepares to move 150 jobs out of Barnet http://ning.it/1fmk9tc

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To view report click here

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London Living Wage to be implemented for Barnet Council staff

In the same Barnet Press article it reports:

“Mr Cornelius also said that salaries of the remaining in-house employees would be brought up to the living wage, which in London is £8.55 an hour, £2.36 above the national minimum wage.”

This is a GOOD NEWS story for all workers working for Barnet and earning less than the Living Wage.

Four years ago our branch tried to convince the Council that staff working for private contractors (at this time it was cleaners) should be on the London Living Wage. UNISON took the matter to the then Leader of the Council Mike Freer. A promise was made to look into the issue but nothing was done. At the time no council staff were earning less than the London Living Wage.

But now, four years on nearly a thousand workers are earning less than the London Living Wage.

You can read the details in a report going to the Remuneration Committee on 14 October 2013 see HERE

This is clear evidence of how fast the cost of living crisis and freeze on pay has impacted on the lives of council workers. In the Council report it states

“3. CORPORATE PRIORITIES AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS

3.1. The Council believes that no-one should do a hard day’s work for less than they can live on, and that all our staff deserve to be paid at least the Living Wage. Council considers that if everyone in London on low pay were paid at least the living wage it could potentially save the government money by increasing the tax base and reducing spend on welfare benefits.

3.2. In addition, the Council believes that the added benefit to the Council of paying at least the living wage include increased productivity and lower staff turnover, which would reduce recruitment costs.”

It is our view that all employers who currently pay their staff below the London Living Wage should recognise the benefits and make plans to adopt the above statement.

Our branch will be writing to all of the employers delivering public services in Barnet to join Barnet Council implement the London Living Wage. We will be asking the Council to work with UNISON to ensure contractors for example cleaning service are all paid the London Living Wage.

If you have never heard about the London Living Wage and want to know more read here

“Council may be forced to outsource additional services, warns leader”

(Barnet Press 3 October 2013)

“THE leader of Barnet Council says that the authority will continue to outsource and make funding cuts if the government continues to slash local authority budgets after the 2015 general election.” More here

On Tuesday 1 October  UNISON attended a meeting to discuss the One Barnet Programme. Some of our members may be aware that the programme was split into Wave One & Wave Two. The meeting formalised the closing of Wave One with the caveat that there would be a lessons learnt report produced with an opportunity for the trade unions to contribute. We were informed that Wave Two has already started which includes CCTV service, Registars Services, Mortuary Service all of which will no doubt be outsourced at some point in time.

The latest big project for Wave Two is the Education Service or what used be known as the Local Education Authority (LEA). This service has had some pretty vicious cuts in the past but has now been lumped together with all the services that have remained in Education in readiness for the One Barnet treatment.

I reported back to the meeting that staff already believe it is simply a matter of time before they are outsourced. Many workers in our Education service are already aware that Capita won the contract to deliver LEA services on behalf of Staffordshire County Council late last year. More recently Capita won another big contract in Swindon to deliver the following services: administrative support and reception-based duties on behalf of the Children’s Integrated Service Localities teams, which includes education welfare, youth engagement, health visiting support, targeted mental health services and educational psychology.

So, the news headline will not be a shock to anyone working for the Council. The Commissioning model does not tolerate in house service delivery. It doesn’t matter whether the service is high performing, low cost, value for money, the ‘die has been cast’ and outsourcing is the ‘only game in town’.

It is only right to point out Streetscene services have remained in-house. This weekend sees the return of the Recycling services from May Gurney. However a straw poll of members working down the deport would reveal that no one believes that this services will be still in-house once Mill Hill Depot is sold by December 2016

UNISON does not support ideological adherence to One Barnet outsourcing and will continue to support our members and public services in Barnet.