Barnet UNISON

There is a growing group of UNISON members who have an alternative theory as to what is really going on in Barnet Council. They believe that UNISON must strike back at the Galactic mass weapon aka One Barnet.

They are demanding the branch affiliate to the ‘Rebel Alliance Barnet’ (RAB) in what they see as the battle for Little Barnet.

‘Luke UNISON’, ‘Hans ‘off’ our Barnet’ along with the RAB believe Barnet residents are still not fully aware of the implications of the Mass privatisation secret weapon known as “One Barnet”. The reason for residents not understanding One Barnet is due they claim to the lack of transparency by ‘Emperor Outsourcing’ and his side kick ‘Darth Barnet.’

RAB believe the Council has already been infiltrated by Storm Companies (aka Storm Troopers) aided by the ‘Sith’ aka as ‘The Consultants’. The Sith through mind control have convinced the council they have only one options, ‘One Barnet outsourcing’ the Storm Companies are intent on bidding for services and once obtained will systematically asset strip them.    

A clue to the rapacious appetite of the Storm Companies was recently revealed at a Conference last month by someone called Ed Milliband. RAB are not yet sure whether they have his support, but that is another story!

We are seeking allies.

Can you send messages of support to UNISON members strike back against the One Barnet programme and the Sith.

You can view RAB intergalactic message here

Please send messages of support to john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

BARNET UNISON STRIKES BACK: TUESDAY 18 OCTOBER

 

UNISON members taking strike action last month. We have found a way in which all our members can show support for those taking strike action on Tuesday 18 October.

Barnet UNISON is asking if you are not part of the groups taking part in the action show your support by wearing something green or purple (UNISON’s colours) on the day (trousers, shirt, tights, jumper, tie, scarf, cardigan, hat etc).

John Burgess Branch Secretary has offered to dye his hair purple on 18 October, what will you do?

 

A report on Nutsville Blog suggests Barnet Council have been asked withdraw parking services tender or face EU Commission investigation

Here is an extract from the Blog Post

In 2008 Barnet Council undertook a trial between two pay-by-phone companies just in their car parks. The costs involved were of minimal value so did not exceed the EU threshold to trigger a tendering exercise.  In 2009 Barnet decided they were going to go with Verrus and awarded them a low value contract in accordance with their procurement code. That contract was for two years, supposedly ending in March 2011. In June 2010 Barnet had rolled out pay-by-phone on to the streets of Barnet, making the contract more lucrative to Verrus.  But from around March this year payments from Barnet to Verrus really shot up as the Council took out more of its pay and display machines, leaving Verrus as the only game in town for motorists.

From March until August this year Barnet Council have paid Verrus more than £86,000, which would put their projected spend at over £200,000 expressly in violation of EU legislation and the EU threshold limit of £156,000. Brian Coleman must have been aware he was acting illegally as he even went against Barnet’s own Contract Procedure Rules (page 129 Table 5-2 Acceptance thresholds for contract extensions and variations Greater than £156,422 Authority must be sought).

Barnet UNISON forwarded the post earlier this week and await a response.

You can read the full article http://nutsville.com/?p=3472

Westminster Council parking enforcement sub contractor are NSL Services, yet news broke out last week that they were recruiting agency staff to issue parking tickets.

It sounds unbelievable but it it really is happening.

Please note Barnet Council is currently assessing tenders submitted by contractors to take over theor in-house Parking Service.

The story broke on the Blog Nutsville

see Blog post below 

“In an unprecedented decision Westminster Council plan to recruit their own agency staff to issue parking tickets in the evenings and throughout the night.

Councillor Lee Rowley, Cabinet Member for Parking and Transportation and Councillor Philippa Roe, Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance have taken the decision to snub the councils parking enforcement sub contractors NSL Services by taking back part of the parking enforcement duties from them. Rowley and Roe say they plan to use an old pre-existing contract with Hays Recruitment Agency to find people which the Council hope to train and run as their own ‘in-house’ Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO’s)

The parking enforcement contract first ran into trouble when it came time to re-let the contract just over a year ago. One of the bidders at the time, Mouchel, who were initially awarded the contract in March 2010 ended up taking legal action against the Council when the contract was taken away from them. Westminster Council chose not to defend the legal action in the High Court and paid off Mouchel around £600,000 in a last minute out of court settlement. Rowley said at the time that handing over £600,000 was the responsible thing to do, as the Council was facing the possibility of losing £4million in compensation if the case went to court.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Labour leader for Westminster, at the time branded the parking enforcement contract relet saga a “very unsatisfactory and expensive fiasco”.

It was hoped that after the Council had taken over six months and spent an estimated £1million in awarding a contract, then taking it back, launching a new expensive tendering excersise whilst fighting a legal battel with Mouchel that Rolwey had got the hang of running the parking department.

But in October 2010 we revealed how Cllr Rowley had approved spending £1.95M of taxpayers money propping up the NSL contract with 50 extra CEO’s, due to failing technology.

A cabinet report at the time revealed all;

“It is anticipated that these increased compliance levels should be achieved by using new technology. However, at the date of the report that technology has not been implemented. It is expected that this technology will be in place by January 2011 and be delivering the efficiency benefits by the end of the first year of the contract. Therefore, in order to achieve these outcomes in the interim the contractor will need to deploy a greater level of resources across the Overnight and Irregular Periods; this has been assessed to be an increases of 50 FTE.”

Cllr Rowley dismissed accusations that he did not have the authority to make the cabinet decision or that it was against the Councils Constitution, claiming that the use of the word ‘virement’ in the decision notice was simply a mistake.

The October 2010 report also went on to explain that if  NSL’s technology did not live up to expectations they would be expected to pay for any extra CEO’s to meet Council targets in future:

“If the technology fails to deliver the results anticipated by NSL, then at their cost, they can maintain higher FTE levels to meet the compliance outcomes.”

Nutsville has now learnt from NSL insiders that the parking enforcement contract with Westminster has continued not to go to plan. Staff have told Nutsville that NSL have continued to set “Beat Averages” that CEO’s must achieve, otherwise they are disciplined for “poor performance”. This has led to several CEO’s already being disciplined. CEO’s have also been told that they will soon have to take on extra duties while they are patrolling the streets because not enough penalty tickets are being issued. It looks likely that the first of these new duties will be dog fouling – which is currently something Westminster City Wardens carry out.

NSL staff have also told Nuts that the enforcement contract profit is, at best, breaking even but it is more likely that it’s now losing NSL money but they continue with it for fear that it could start a domino effect amongst other Authorities if they withdraw from Westminster.

In Rowley’s and Roe’s latest decision it states they plan to alter the current contract with NSL services to take away from them the evening and night time enforcement duties. The report goes on to explain that the initial high costs involved in recruitment and training are expected to be clawed back by the money raked in from motorists parking in Westminster, and therefore would effectively mean no extra costs to the taxpayer.

 

The branch recently received a letter signed by a ‘long suffering taxpayer’

The letter raises serious questions about the legitimacy of outsourcing Environmental health services. The issues raised are points made by UNISON & our members who work in Environmental Services.

The letter ends with

“I hope these thoughts will be of some use in the consideration of (what seems to me) to be an absurd proposal.

 Yours sincerely

 (Long Suffering Local Tax Payer).”

To view the letter click HERE

Messages of support for UNISON members who took strike action have come flooding in.

To view click here

Look at what you are paying for your pension. Half the figure and you will see just how much more the Government wants you to pay towards your pension every month of your working life. This will come into effect from April 1^st. If you do not want to be the April Fool then you should come to this meeting to hear what the proposals mean and what we mean to do about it.

We also want to give advice on Pilot Privatisation Schemes.

What does the union do for me?

We have represented and advised very many colleagues in Children’s Services. We want to do more and more effectively.

View invite here