“Your Choice was never Our Choice!” – A New Campaign is Launched

Around 50 people came together last night to launch a campaign to bring Your Choice services back in-house. There was a mixture of service users, carers, workers and supporters. Everyone was clear the fight for workers’ pay and rights is directly linked to the fight for the rights of disabled people. After all if the workers are treated shamefully then what does that say about the way disabled people are viewed? Not worthy of having a skilled worker? People were clear the fight is not going to be easy, but neither is allowing Your Choice and the Council to get away with an outrageous attack on the terms and conditions of Your Choice workers who will be downgraded in pay or be made redundant, have weekend allowances removed and then have their salaries benchmarked against the private sector. UNISON estimates the cuts could amount to around a 20% cut in the pay of these already low-paid workers. The meeting agreed to support the Labour Party motion going to Full Council next week about bringing Your Choice back in-house and to encourage people to attend that meeting. It also agreed to have the next campaign meeting Thursday 25^th April in the evening at the Greek Cypriot Centre to decide next steps.

Council Social Care Staff

The context of the Your Choice Campaign is one which is becoming all too familiar in the Council as jobs are cut and downgraded and people feel angry about the way the work they do is not being valued. Library workers are disputing their pay grade and added to this are social care staff in Adults and Communities Service. On a 60% turnout they have voted 95% in favour of requesting the branch seeks authorisation for an official ballot for industrial action to have the right pay reinstated for a critical post in the structure. These social work and OT staff are telling the branch in meeting after meeting they have had enough and are fed up with not being taken seriously.

Dear Colleagues

Please find below an update on the Tripartite TUPE consultation with Capita to date:

1. Transfer Date

As a result of the Judicial Review the date of transfer was moved from 1 April to 1 May. The Council and Capita are currently making plans for a possible transfer date of 1 May. However this is dependent on the outcome of the JR.

2. TUPE List – which posts are transferring

Throughout the Tripartite TUPE consultation meetings we have been seeking to establish which posts are transferring and the business reasons for jobs being exported out of the borough. On 18 March 2013 UNISON submitted the following communication to Capita.

Dear Capita

“In the Measures letter dated 7 January Capita refer to a number of service delivery relocations.

I am requesting information about the Capita proposal to restructure & relocate Council Services. In order that I can begin to understand the measures outlined in the letter dated 7 January I have produced a spreadsheet for Council Services, using the TUPE list information provided to the Trade Unions 7 January 2013 by the London Borough of Barnet.

Our spreadsheets simply ask you to provide two key pieces of information for UNISON to begin to comply with the TUPE regulations.

Workplace location

Please state which posts are being relocated and which are remaining in Barnet.

Redundancy Risk for those remaining in Barnet

It is clear in the Measures letter dated 7 January 2013 (view here) that there are posts at risk of redundancy as a result of a restructure as opposed to relocation. Please state if the any of the posts are at risk of redundancy as a result of a restructure.”

UPDATE: Although we have now had a second Measures letter (view here), it does not provide the details we have requested and we have sought a response to our correspondence for posts across all eight service areas.

3. Second TUPE consultation communication with Capita

In order we can understand the service business model for relocating services out of the borough on 18 March 2013 UNISON submitted the following request to Capita:

“Dear Capita

I am writing to put on record some of the concerns I have been expressing in the tripartite meetings and in subsequent follow up emails about the current lack of detail about some of the proposed measures identified in the Capita ‘Measures’ letter dated 7 January 2013. 

In the January ‘Measures’ letter Capita propose to change the pay date for the staff transferring to Capita. Capita helpfully commit that no employee will experience any financial detriment as a consequence of this measure. I welcome that response. It was agreed in a subsequent meeting held on Wednesday 6 March 2013 that you would provide an example of how you intend to ensure this commitment. Please can you provide the example referred to in our meeting?

Office Relocation Measure

In the Capita ‘Measures’ letter, Capita are proposing a significant measure which will see hundreds of posts transferred out of the London Borough of Barnet. Regulation 13 places a duty on Capita to provide information to the appropriate representatives and to consult with the appropriate representatives with a view to seeking an agreement. 

For the record we are not seeking to enter into the formal consultation process which will take place after the TUPE transfer, we are however trying to understand the scale and scope of your proposed measure to transfer services out of the borough. We have asked in the tripartite meetings for disclosure of all the documents you have produced which led to you justifying the service solution to relocate services out of the London Borough of Barnet, most recently on Monday 11 March 2013.

To date it is our contention that the above duty has not been met (in relation to relocation) in that insufficient information has been provided to the Trade Unions to allow us to make representations to Capita as specified in Regulation 13(7).

I am therefore asking for disclosure of all the documents you have produced which led to you justifying the service solution to relocate services out of the London Borough of Barnet.”

UPDATE: Although we have now had a second Measures letter, it does not provide the details we have requested and we have therefore sought a response to our correspondence for posts across all eight service areas.

4. Second Measures Letter

You should have all seen the Second Measures letter (view here). Unlike the first Measures letter it provides actual number of posts as opposed to full time equivalents (FTE) which is very different. UNISON will be formally responding but we have already made the following comments

·         FTE

The Trade Unions have asked that a column be added showing the total FTE for each of the eight services. This has been agreed.

·         Revenues & Benefits

UNISON notes the numbers of posts remaining in Barnet has been increased significantly from 2FTE to 28 posts. This is welcome news and we will continue to challenge Capita to seek ways in which posts can remain within Barnet and therefore reduce the loss of employment opportunities within our borough.

·         Role Reductions

This is a new column and is connected to the recent service staff briefing presentations. UNISON had picked up on the previous Measure letter that there were missing figures. These post deletions are relating to the transformation process after transfer which may or may not be related to the relocation consultations. UNISON is concerned to note that 207 posts are at risk of redundancy.

·         Relocation of Services

The number of posts being relocated out of the borough has been reduced slightly (it is now 176 posts at risk of redundancy) but it is still a significant number. UNISON is seeking further information as required in the TUPE regulations in order we can consult with our members and respond to Capita.

·         Reducing the number of posts lost to the borough

There are currently 385 posts at risk of being lost to the borough. UNISON along with GMB are seeking to negotiate with Capita other service delivery options to the proposals identified in both Measures letters.

 

5. Policies and Procedures – Staff Handbook

You may be aware that Capita have been publishing what is known as a Terms & Conditions matrix which sets out all the Councils Policies & Procedures. This would have been referred to in your TUPE meetings with HR as the staff handbook. The Matrix has been set out in three colours Red, Amber, Green. It is important to note that the policies in Red and Green will not change when you transfer to Capita

It is the Policies in Amber I want to bring to your attention as these are either changing or being amended to reflect the process carried out by Capita.

6. Suitable Alternative Employment (SAE)

This has been a critical subject for consultation as it will have an impact on our members entitlement to redundancy and their ability to find another job. The latest version of Capita’s Principles of Suitable Alternative Employment and Redeployment can be viewed here.

It is important to note there is a big difference between Suitable Alternative Employment & Alternative Employment options. If you need further information or have any concerns please come along to the next UNISON NSCSO meetings which are taking place on Monday 15 April 12 noon in Oak Room. 

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please note the following schedule of UNISON NSCSO/DRS meeting

Tuesday 30 April 1pm Oak Room

Tuesday 21 May 1pm in Oak Room

Links:

Capita First Measures letter 7 January 2013

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Pre%20ConsultationMeasures%20Letter%20V3%20070113%20to%20TUs%2007%2001%2013.pdf

Capita second Measures letter 25 March 2013

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Mid%20Point%20ConsultationMeasures%20Letter%20V5%20250313_0.pdf

Capita’s Principles of Suitable Alternative Employment and Redeployment April 2014

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Capita’s%20Principles%20of%20Suitable%20Alternative%20Employment%20and%20Redeployment%20v4.pdf

 

 

 

 

Throughout the TUPE consultation process Capita have submitted two Measures letters.

The first submitted 7 January 2013 can be found here 

The second submitted 25 March 2013 can be found here

The latest version of Capita’s Principles of Suitable Alternative Employment and Redeployment can be found here 

After months of TUPE consultation with Barnet Council and Capita about the proposed mass privatisation of key council services, the true human cost has finally been revealed in the latest Measures letter sent to the Unions today.

Since the decision to award the contract to Capita, UNISON has been trying to ascertain the true cost to staff and jobs.

This letter reveals the massive scale of job losses. Out of *597 posts currently providing Council services to Barnet residents only 200 will remain within the borough of Barnet, meaning *397 posts will be deleted/redundant.

The number of job losses in our community is significantly much higher than was being claimed by the council when the contract was first announced in December 2012.

Did this have to happen?

No, Barnet Council could have inserted a clause into the contract which stated the Council would only consider bids which promised to bring jobs to their community. This is not an uncommon factor when councils are looking at outsourcing as an option. Indeed Capita have recently won a contract with Staffordshire County Council to deliver services which includes a commitment to bring 1,613 additional jobs to their community.

UNISON will continue through the TUPE consultations with Capita and the Council to try and reduce the number of redundancies.

* Still awaiting a decision for Procurement services (12 posts)

TUPE regulations http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655

‘Your Choice’ Care Workers Campaign

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION

http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/YourChoiceBack/

Pictures of the march can be found here http://ning.it/15Hk8Hh here http://ning.it/15HkePd and here http://ning.it/15HkgGx