Barnet UNISON

Barnet Council seek to impose a lock out of its members!

12th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

Dear Members,

I wanted to write to you all and try to provide some clarification and reassurance regarding the very fierce conversation that has been taking place between UNISON and the Council.

I recognise that you have been bombarded with a mass of communications that will have been very confusing throughout what has been a very fast moving week.

This morning UNISON members have all received a letter from the Council threatening staff that if they take strike action tomorrow they will be deducted a full day’s pay regardless whether they work until 1pm. Furthermore I am hearing that staff are being told that there will be managers on the gates of NLBP to check staff in. If staff do not sign a register stating they will not be taking half day strike action they will be sent home.

The Council is trying to impose what used to be called a ‘Lock out!’

As a UNISON member it was agreed by all that you would take half a day and therefore lose half a day’s pay. That is what most reasonable employers would have deducted under these circumstances. However the Councils actions are neither proportionate and reasonable.

The lateness at which the Council have given this letter demonstrates they fear that UNISON members will all walk out tomorrow.

I can confirm UNISON will make up the cost of any financial loss up until 1pm on Tuesday 13 September.

Messages of support are flooding in from the community and other trade unions.

“John

As a Barnet resident and public sector employee I wanted to send a quick email to express my support for you and your members and the proposed “Barnet Independence Day” action on Tuesday. As someone who has experienced being outsourced but who was then fortunate enough to get back into the public sector, my experience tells me that it would be inconceivable for a contractor to take over delivery on the scale intended by the London Borough of Barnet without there being both a degradation of services and in the terms of conditions for staff who are transferred; this is how private companies make their profit from such contracts.

Hopefully your campaign will open a few more Barnet residents eyes to what is going on and more importantly, to what we might end up with in Barnet in terms of a service from our local authority. I wish you and Barnet Unison all the best and will try and join you at the Town Hall for at least part of the rally on Tuesday evening.”

I have recently had a message of support from the PCS union. They recently won a battle with their employer who was seeking to transfer their jobs out of the country. Members all voted to take strike action and they won. To read the full article click here

We anticipate members will be angry and confused and have booked the Oak Room, Building 4, 12 – 2pm

Tomorrow is your chance to make your voice heard loud and clear.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

www.barnetunison.me.uk

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Barnet UNISON being transparent about our Pensions report

11th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

To view report click here

What happened before and why the Council offer is not an offer…yet!

11th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

To put it mildly there is now a war of words taking place within the Council.

UNISON is concerned about the impact is having on a workforce where morale is at an all time low and staff understandable looking for ways to leave. The fact that there are so few opportunities makes for a stressful work environment.

I want to take this opportunity to go over the Council offer, which they have imposed on their staff last week through the use of quite extraordinary communications.

The Generous Offer???

1. All employees in services moving to a new employer will be able to continue their membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme uninterrupted and unchanged

2. Local union recognition will be protected for staff moving to external suppliers

3. Terms and conditions of staff transferred will be protected for at least one year after leaving the council’s employment

4. Any changes to terms and conditions after that first year will have to be negotiated with the appropriate trade union.

Now compare with what has happened to former Barnet Council staff

1. Fremantle

When Care staff were outsourced to Fremantle

They took their pensions with them (less than 20% of staff are now left in the scheme)

When Care staff were outsourced to Fremantle

Fremantle recognised UNISON

When Care staff were outsourced to Fremantle

Fremantle consulted with the UNISON

When Care staff were outsourced to Fremantle

Fremantle waited a couple of years before the destroyed the terms & conditions of our members

2. Greenwich Leisure

When staff were transferred to Greenwich Leisure

They took their pension with them (less than 1% left in the scheme)

When staff were transferred to Greenwich Leisure

Greenwich recognised UNISON

When staff were transferred to Greenwich Leisure

Greenwich Leisure consulted with UNISON over changes to terms & conditions after a couple of years.

When staff were transferred to Greenwich Leisure

In the time since staff were transferred to Greenwich Leisure there are now no staff left on council terms and conditions

3. Cleaning Contractors

When cleaners were privatised

They took their pensions (less than 1% are left in the scheme)

When cleaners were privatised

The contractors recognised UNISON

When cleaners were privatised

Contractors consulted with UNISON

When cleaners were privatised

They waited over a year before attacking terms & conditions

4. Home Care workers

When home care staff were transferred to Housing 21

They took their pension with them (less than 20% left in the scheme)

When home care staff were transferred to Housing 21

They recognised UNISON

When home care staff were transferred to Housing 21

They consulted with UNISON when they attacked our members terms & conditions

5. Housing Repair workers

When housing repairs were transferred to Connaught’s

They took their pensions (there are less than 30% of them left in)

When housing repairs were transferred to Connaught’s

Connaught’s recognised UNISON

When housing repairs were transferred to Connaught’s

Connaught’s consulted with UNISON before attacking our members terms & conditions.

Our members working in housing repairs are now working for Lovells but are now facing their fourth TUPE in 6 years

UNISON response

We told the Council that

1. Location: The number 1 concern for our members. If the contractor plans to deliver services outside of the borough all the other points in the council offer are subsequently meaningless if you are made redundant. UNISON said the services must be located within the borough. We have consistently been saying this since 2008.

2. Pension scheme. The Pension Scheme must be open to new starters

3. Protection: Protection should be for the life of the contract or in case of 10 year contracts a minimum of 5 years.

TUPE has been a concern for Barnet staff since the launch of Future Shape/easycouncil/One Barnet.

The most common question asked by staff in the last 3 years is

“How long does TUPE last?”

There is no real answer. It covers the moment you are transferred to the new employer. Most companies wait at least a year before they start on terms & conditions. In our local examples above that was the case. UNISON knows it, the Council knows it, which is why UNISON is saying the Council is being disingenuous when it states

“Terms and conditions of staff transferred will be protected for at least one year after leaving the council’s employment”

If the contractor can claim there is an economic and /or technical or organisational (aka ETO) reason for change they can consult on changes to terms & conditions, that is what happened to all the former council employees.

UNISON understands the risks and as a trade union it is our role to try and protect our members. That is what trade unions do.

No self respecting trade union would do otherwise. Our branch has attempted over three years to enter into a genuine dialogue with the Council and that is still our position.

Up until the 6 September we were waiting for the full & final offer which we would submit to our members for consultation. However, things changed dramatically when the Council launched a pre-emptive attempt to undermine and spread confusion amongst our members by using what members have described as bullying and intimidatory use of council communications.

UNISON have consistently made it clear that we would suspend any action once we received a final offer.

What is really going on in Barnet

10th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

Earlier this week Barnet Council began what has been described my many of our members as a systematic and ruthless campaign to bully and intimidate UNISON members who are about to take strike action.

It is important to understand that the Council have walked away from negotiations and are now trying to circumvent negotiations with UNISON by bombarding staff with a deliberate misrepresentation of what has been taking place in negotiations

Here is a comment from a letter sent by our UNISON regional organiser to our Chief Executive yesterday

“Finally, it is of grave concern to UNISON that the council’s negotiating team has been limited to HR staff. UNISON fielded our Regional Head of Local Government in addition to the Branch Chair, Branch Secretary and myself as we regarded the issues posed in Barnet as being of significant strategic importance. It remains a disappointment to us that the Council has not seen fit to deploy senior strategic staff in support of its HR team in these negotiations and I would ask you to rethink its composition for the future.”

For the avoidance of any doubt the UNISON negotiating team consisted of:

UNISON Head of Local Government

UNISON Regional Organiser

Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON Branch Chair

Council Negotiating Team

Interim Assistant Director of HR (Consultant)

Head of Business Partnering & Change

HR Policy Lead (Consultant)

You can read the full letter here

Hardship application forms

9th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

Some our members are about to begin industrial action.

If you are taking action please download the Hardship application form here

Branch response to the Council Offer

9th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

Barnet Council is carrying out an intensive and aggressive campaign to undermine UNISON and to seek to prevent our members from taking striek action on Tuesday 13 September aka Barnet Independence Day.

To read our response to the Council offer click here

Press Release: 400 UNISON members to take strike action on Barnet Independence Day 13 Sept

6th September 2011 admin Uncategorised

6 September 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On Tuesday 13 September up to 400 UNISON members working across the following services will be taking strike action

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Cemeteries & Crematoria; Parking Services, Revs & Bens,

The Trades Dispute concerns the identity of the employer. Barnet Council is promoting the One Barnet programme which is just a ‘remix version’ of the ‘contracting out’ ideology from the 1980’s. There are already several contracts out for consultation with the private sector. The value of the contracts (fast approaching almost £2 billion) has already attracted the big Private sector FAT CATS.

Up to 70% of the council workforce could be transferred to the Private sector in little more than 16 months time.

Dave Prentis general secretary message to Barnet UNISON.

“To the 400 UNISON members taking strike action: UNISON members across the country are standing shoulder to shoulder with you as you challenge this council – a council that refuses to listen to its workforce, a council that refuses to listen to logic or sense, a council now embarking on a reckless gamble”

“Last week our union commissioned a report on the impact of outsourcing on the council’s pension scheme. The report gave a damning assessment of the serious financial risks to the pension scheme as a direct result of One Barnet programme.

Heather Wakefield UNISON’s head of local government,

‘The widescale privatisation at the heart of One Barnet should be placed under the severest scrutiny by Government, Barnet’s scrutiny committee and the people of Barnet themselves. The council’s failure to ensure procurement procedures and the obvious detrimental impact on the Local Government Pension Scheme of privatisation of local services are just two good reasons for challenging the path that Barnet has chosen. The third is the waste of public money involved in the procurement process through payments to consultants, procurement costs and payments to shareholders – money which should be invested in local people and local services.’

John Burgess Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary said

“The Council need to recognise that ‘political dogma’ also known as One Barnet programme cannot be allowed to continue to expose residents, services and staff to a high risk strategy and expect them to pick up the bill.

What we mean by ‘independence’

A recent article “Greensquare Field – Planning to Outsource Planning posted on the local Barnet Eye Blog encapsulates conflict of interest’s issues:

“At the moment Barnet Council is in the middle of tendering to outsource a number of services, one of which is the planning service. In the running are a number of companies: Capita Symonds, Atkins, Jacobs and E C Harrison. The planning consultants who represent Higgins Homes plc, and have done through 2 planning applications, 2 planning appeals, a village green application and the draft LDF, work for Capita Symonds. If Capita win the tender, they will decide any future planning applications.”

As council services for Barnet as a place to live and work, our decisions must be 100% independent and free from any ‘conflict of interest’.

Barnet Alliance have recently published a newspaper their front page spells out the dangers of the One Barnet here

Barnet UNISON is asking for the One Barnet programme to be put on hold.

End.

Contact: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

Useful Links

1. Outsourcing Planning – local blog

http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-blog-greensquare-field-planning.html

2. The potential impact of reduced active membership of the London borough of Barnet Pension Fund,’ (First Actuarial LLP)

To read summary click on link below

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/UNISON%20Barnett%20Council.31%20August%202011.SUMMARY.pdf

To read full report click on link below