Search Results for: libraries

Message to Barnet UNISON Library workers – John Burgess

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recruiting on a picket line

recruiting on a picket line

To Barnet UNISON Library workers

I wanted to provide you with an update following a meeting with management on Monday 12th September 2016.

Firstly I requested an urgent meeting with the Chief Executive so I can raise my concerns about the proposals and present again another option that negates the need to implement this destruction of the Barnet Library service.  I am due to meet him on Monday 26 September at 10 am. I will report back on this meeting later that week.

I have also requested an urgent meeting with the Leader of the Council. I believe that the proposed destruction of the Library Service is unnecessary and can be avoided.

In our union meeting last week I mentioned that I had seen the agency/consultancy paid by Barnet Council. Below is the agency/consultancy spend for the past four years and at a time when the size of the council workforce is shrinking year on year with outsourcing and redundancies.

  • 2012/13 £12,526,943
  • 2013/14 £13,775,546
  • 2014/15 £15,538,090
  • 2015/16 £17,907,052

In 2015/16 the agency spend increased to £17,907,052

In the first quarter of this financial year the Council has already paid out £6.9 million which, if it continues could see the Council break £20 million on agency/consultants.

In my view the Councils agency/consultancy costs are out of control and as you can all see it is increasing year on year.

The contractors providing agency workers and consultants will charge a commission to the Council. Looking at the figures over the last four years the commission paid to contractors would easily pay the Library savings.

The Council may respond that they are able to stop this escalation and are putting in systems and controls on spend. Well I’m afraid they said that before. Last autumn a resident John Dix asked a question about agency spend and he was told “agency levels should fall by 15% by the end of 2015/16.” (read full response here)

As you can see the spend for 2015/16 was £17,907,052

My offer on the negotiating table is quite simple.

Drop the current proposal and work with staff, residents on building and developing all of the Libraries in Barnet including plans to develop further in response to the rapid growth in the local population.

The savings required by the Library service will be generated by tackling the out of control agency/consultancy spend.

Last week two messages of support were given by Jeremy Corbyn

You can view the message from Jeremy here https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2016/09/20/jeremy-corbyn-backs-barnet-unison-library-workers/

and John here https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2016/09/20/john-mcdonnell-backs-barnet-unison-library-workers/

Strike action

Hugh Jordan will be back week commencing 26 September and a message will be going out in relation to the next strike action we discussed last week in the event the Council continue with their planned destruction.

Barnet UNISON Petition for Library workers

Please sign, get family and friends to sign

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-destruction-of-barnet-library-service-and-the-sacking-of-barnet-library-workers

5th November demo

Be ready to join this national demonstration you can leave comments on facebook link here https://www.facebook.com/events/282708008768589/

Links to Library destruction

‘It is not a transformation, it is a destruction’ – Barnet’s UNISON branch call to save library jobs

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/14737931.___It_is_not_a_transformation__it_is_a_destruction________Barnet___s_UNISON_branch_call_to_save_library_jobs/

A Library without staff what could possibly go wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXmk6I8DdPM

Austerity for whom – in Barnet Council?

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2016/09/17/austerity-for-whom-in-barnet-council/

Barnet UNISON: Further Response to the Library Restructure Staff Consultation

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2016/09/07/further-response-to-the-library-restructure-staff-consultation/

Social Media

You can follow @Barnet_Unison on Twitter

Barnet UNISON Face Book here https://www.facebook.com/BarnetUNISON/

Solidarity

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON

 

 

Austerity for whom – in Barnet Council?

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agency-spend-8-years

Thanks to Barnet Blogger Mr Reasonable for tracking all Barnet Council payments over £500. The data is produced every quarter on the Council web site. All Council must publish this data.

In 2012 Barnet Council employed 2784 staff and consultant spend was £7,732, 269

In 2016 Barnet Council employs 1633 staff and consultant spend was £17, 907,052

For the first quarter of this year Barnet Council has spent £6,926,170 if this is pattern continues the Council could break £20,000,000 on agency/consultancy spend.

On Monday 12 September all Barnet Library staff were brought together to be told that 46% of staff will be sacked.

They are being sacked because this was the only way Barnet Council says they can save £2.85 million

I want to be clear on where Barnet UNISON stand on this disgraceful attack on the Barnet Library service.

This is not a transformation this an expensive destruction of an excellent Library service that only this year received a 93% customer satisfaction rating.

It is simply not sustainable for any politician in Barnet Council to continue to promote Austerity in one of the richest boroughs in London. Furthermore the rapidly growing population of Barnet makes a mockery of the destructive decimation of the Barnet Library service. We need to talking about increasing the Library Service not cutting and making it less safe for children and less accessible for people with disabilities.

The answer is clear for anyone who want to see.

Barnet UNISON has historically challenged senior officers  in Barnet on their dependence on agency/consultancy, each year a new set of senior officers sit round the table and nod and agree that it needs addressing.

But take another look at the figures. They are increasing each year and at the same time the council work force is shrinking.

Then there are the ongoing redundancy payments Barnet Council is funding and remember this Barnet Council also funded the redundancy costs of the hundreds of jobs lost when Capita took over Council services in 2013 and moved jobs to Belfast, Blackburn, Carlisle etc.

Something is seriously wrong.

For the sake of all frontline services which includes social care and Libraries, Barnet Council need to drop the “outsourcing ideology” and tackle the agency/consultancy spend.

It’s not too late, drop the destructive plans for Barnet Library Service and let’s rebuild and support a frontline service that has the backing of Barnet residents.

Initial Response to Libraries Review Staff Consultation, 28th July 2016

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2016/07/29/initial-response-to-libraries-review-staff-consultation/#more-5138

Barnet UNISON response to Barnet Council sacking 46% of Library workers

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2016/09/07/further-response-to-the-library-restructure-staff-consultation/

Further Response to the Library Restructure Staff Consultation

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Further Response to the Library Restructure Staff Consultation

Call for Extension

 Barnet UNISON repeats the call for an extension of the Staff Consultation period, while acknowledging that the Council did not limit this to the legal minimum of 45 days. However, our members have not received all the information they have requested during the consultation period. Neither has Barnet UNISON to date received responses to all points we have raised.

Our members still await answers to questions regarding their pensions and other financial matters. Some members have not had the 1 to 1 meeting with their managers and HR to which they are entitled. This lack of information makes it difficult for our members to take the important decisions that the restructure will impose.

UNSON also has concerns over the nature of the 1 to 1 sessions. These should be conducted so colleagues can learn how the proposed restructure will affect them and in order to have their specific personal and wider concerns answered. However, questions are being put to Library staff by the Council regarding the rationale of the library cuts and they are being asked for alternatives to the library cuts. This is not the forum for the Council to ask individual members of staff these questions, many of whom will already find the 1 to 1 meetings a difficult and stressful process. » Read more

BREAKING NEWS: National UNISON backing 5 November demo

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“We have just received the following statement from UNISON. Now lets build this demonstration, lets make so much noise Austerity will not be able to silence all of our voices about the brutal reality of austerity to our public services that all of us love. Solidarity see you all on the 5th November” John Burgess, Branch Secretary, Barnet UNISON

UNISON is taking part in the UK demonstration for Libraries, Museums and Galleries in support of the thousands of our members working in them across the UK. Libraries, museums and workers providing the services have suffered damaging cuts since 2010 under the Coalition and Conservative governments’ ‘austerity’ regime. If this continues, they will be destroyed as a critical local service.

25% of library jobs have been lost in the last six years, nearly 350 libraries closed and over 170 handed over to “community groups” and volunteers and yet more cuts are being planned.

This is not just devastating to the 8000 library workers who have been deprived of their income and careers, but also a loss to the UK nations as a whole. Library cuts mean:

· Our communities are increasingly being denied the use of the skills, knowledge and experience of library workers.
· People across the country are losing free access to information, education and entertainment both printed and digital.
· Children’s literacy is being hampered as access to library books and librarians and other library professionals is reduced.
· Job seekers and young peoplelosing the opportunity to improve skills and search for jobs using the free information, training and use of ICT in Libraries
· Social isolation increased for many people who rely on libraries for human contact and interaction

Yet libraries and museums remain much used and loved public services. Nearly a third of all adults in the UK visited a library in the twelve months ending September 2015, rising to nearly 40% of women and around 50% of Black and ethnic minority people.**

UNISON supports the Demonstration on the 5th of November in support of ourlibrary and museum workers and a public service vital to our communitie

s. Please join us.

Heather Wakefield National Secretary Local Government, Police and Justice Section

Join

Report

UNISON Response to Accommodation Office Options Review (FBC)

 

UNISON response to
Accommodation Options Review (AOR) and to Locality Strategy Options (LSO)
11th July 2016

Barnet UNISON
UNISON Office,
Barnet House
Telephone: 020 8359 2088.
Fax: 020 8368 5985.
Email: contactus@barnetunison.org.uk
www.barnetunison.me.uk
2016

UNISON Response

 

Summary

1) The cost to Barnet Council of £50million on this project without having fully secured or identified the associated resources needed elsewhere in the Borough to make it workable presents as foolhardy as the decision to sell off Mill Hill depot without having secured an alternative.
2) High numbers of colleagues working at the NLBP and Barnet House sites use their cars both for getting to work (78% according to our survey) and for carrying out their work duties (64%).
3) There are critical risks to the Council with respect to being able to continue operating effectively and safely if a wholesale move to Colindale goes ahead.
4) It is not clear how the assessment of business delivery has arrived at the conclusion it has for the Locality Strategy Options (LSO).
5) The Accommodation Options Review report (AOR) is missing critical information which Councillors need to make a sensible decision about whether or not to proceed to approve the construction of the Colindale site.

Background

Barnet is an outer London Borough with good public transport links going from north to south but with extremely poor east to west transport links. A typical journey across the borough by bus takes one hour. The proposals before this committee are to build council office space in Colindale which:
 has poor access routes across the Borough;
 is known to be able to house less than half the number of staff we have in Barnet House and NLBP both in the Council and in partner organisations;
 commit to “smarter working” without fully understanding how this is functioning now and without the infrastructure in place to support this;
 commit to Council staff using alternative space in a variety of venues without any understanding as how practical or feasible this is, including no synchronisation of the plans for libraries with the plans outlined here;
 commit the Council to spending £50million without realising any savings for 50 years (even if it works).
London Borough of Barnet (LBB) has seen many changes over a very short period of time. This has included significant reductions in staff numbers and over 20 TUPE transfers (excluding TUPE transfers of staff from schools to Academies). There have been reports to the various Council Committees which have received approval for developing plans for the further outsourcing of all remaining staff except for those in the Commissioning teams.
This is very unsettling for staff still employed by LBB and there are now serious recruitment and retention problems not only across the whole Council, but also for our “partner” organisations such as Barnet Group, CSG and RE. This is being felt most acutely in staff areas where clients are at extreme risk. Agency staff now make up some 40% of social workers in Family services and over 20% of social workers in Adults services. Recruitment campaign after recruitment campaign is not yielding positive responses by attracting new colleagues. The risks to maintaining safe working are already high in these services both in terms of the current workforce and for service users. Therefore any additional loss of experienced staff to these services could be catastrophic. Most of these colleagues work from the North London Business Park or Barnet House. This knowledge deficit is true of staff groups working for the other partners.
Barnet UNISON conducted a survey over just 7.5 working days on members in both of these settings. We were responding to anecdotal evidence that colleagues are anxious about any prospective move to Colindale. In this very short time we received 219 responses which is unusually high and confirms that this issue is, indeed, worrying a large number of colleagues.
This survey showed that 28.5% of current colleagues would have to stop working for Barnet if their workplace became Colindale. 35% of colleagues are actively looking for new jobs now.
An overwhelming majority of colleagues (78%) use their car to get to work and 64% use their car in carrying out their work duties. After the proposed move to Colindale 76% will need to use their car to get to work and 61% will still need to use their car to carry out their duties. 71% responded that the move to Colindale will lengthen their journey to work (this last response includes those using public transport and those using their cars to get to work).
This indicates that the move to Colindale will be hugely disruptive for colleagues in terms of their attendance at work and has serious operational implications in terms of carrying out business on behalf of the employer if there are not adequate parking arrangements at the Colindale site.
It should be noted this survey focussed questions on those using public transport to get to work and those using cars. We acknowledge that there are colleagues who use their bicycles and motorcycles to get to work and so additional surveys would need to be carried out to capture their anxieties with respect to the move to Colindale. There is too much missing information in the report for Councillors to approve the construction of the offices in Colindale:
 No detail with respect to the fit of numbers of staff and volume of public accessing the space against the size of the spaces themselves.
 No mention of disability access to the site in Colindale either for workers or for residents needing to visit the local offices.
 No completed study on office utilisation.
 No completed study on the current way in which “smarter working” has been taken up (pros and cons), nor a study as to how this is likely to be achieved in the future.
Committing the Council to this decision with such poor information risks repeating a similarly disastrous situation we have with the relocation of operations from Mill Hill depot. In this case it would mean a loss of experienced staff and the inability of services to perform effectively due to lack of access to any, or only poor, office space as well as poor access to some of the communities we serve.
We note that in the LSO report there is much mention of the use of libraries to accommodate the displaced staff. In particular North Finchley, Chipping Barnet, Burnt Oak and Golders Green are very much the preferred venues and yet these libraries will themselves lose respectively 67%, 13%, 51% and 58% of space available to them as part of the plan for libraries agreed by the CELS committee earlier this year. There is absolutely no clear plan for how the space vacated by the library will be used although some of it is to be used commercially.
In addition the reduction in staffed hours of the libraries mean they will not be available to be used safely by other council staff members.

Risks

1) The Council commits itself to a costly albatross when the chance to secure more sustainable and cheaper options may present themselves.
2) There is a high risk that experienced colleagues will leave Barnet in the next 2 years as a direct consequence of confirmation that their workplace is moving from NLBP and Barnet House to Colindale.
3) As a result of large numbers of experienced staff leaving their jobs, the Council will be exposed to serious further risks in terms of managing critical services to the public.
4) Without sufficient provision of parking spaces services to the public are at risk of being undermined by moving large numbers of work colleagues to Colindale as over half of these colleagues use their car to carry out their work duties.
5) High risk of a repeat of the Mill Hill depot scenario where, in the realisation the Council has critical services to provide but has not planned to accommodate the operations around this, it is forced to enter into costly and inefficient solutions.
6) There is a risk the Council will no longer meet its obligations under the Equality Act if it is unable to provide adequate access to disabled workers and residents to its buildings.

Recommendation

1) This committee postpones making a decision until full information has been provided with respect to the answers to questions raised here around disability access; current office utilisation; a study on “smarter working” to date; the genuine feasibility of the usage of the alternative sites identified for the purposes stated.
2) The lease for Barnet House continues until 2032. This gives this committee the chance to take stock of its situation with respect to the Colindale site and to see how the vote to leave the EU will affect the local economy and house prices more generally. This is not the time to make such a costly decision which we can all too easily predict we will regret.

 

 

Barnet Library Workers on Strike

Community, Libraries, Local, National, Solidarity, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

Barnet library workers on strike

“Our members in Barnet have been at the sharp end, with the council outsourcing anything it can. The spirit shown by our library workers today is a tremendous example to us all.”

 

Dave Prentis UNISON General Secretary                                                                                                                                                                 

Dave Prentis takes support and solidarity to north London picket line in strike over plans to outsource library service

General secretary Dave Prentis with striking members and the Barnet UNISON banner outside The Library, in Barnet, north London

General secretary Dave Prentis took the union’s support and solidarity to striking library workers on the picket line in north London this morning.

“You have got our full support and if you need any help just let us know”  

 

Mr Prentis speaking to the #BarnetStrikers

 

The UNISON members were on the third day of their strike over Barnet council’s plans to outsource the borough’s library service.

“Council services up and down the country are under attack as the Tory government in Westminster piles still more cuts on five years of austerity,”

said Mr Prentis.

“Our members in Barnet have been at the sharp end, with the council outsourcing anything it can. The spirit shown by our library workers today is a tremendous example to us all.”

unison.barnet-library-workers-on-strike

#BarnetStrikers

#SaveBarnetLibraries

Standing up to the “easycouncil”

Libraries, Local, National, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

Standing up to the “easycouncil”

“The spirit shown by our library workers today is a tremendous example to us all – and we will stand by them as they fight for their jobs.”
Dave Prentis,
UNISON General Secretary

The assault on our public services in recent years has fallen hardest on local government – with libraries particularly under fire.

And there are few areas that have suffered greater attacks from their local authority than Barnet.

“You have got our full support and if you need any help just let us know”                                                                                                             Mr Prentis speaking to the #BarnetStrikers

So I was proud to be on the picket line alongside library workers today, taking the fight to the so-called Tory “easycouncil” and showing local people how severe and damaging the cuts to their local services really are.

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I spoke with activists Fiona Turnbull and Hugh Jordan (Barnet UNISON’s libraries convenor) about the sheer scale of job losses and service cuts being inflicted on an already bare bones service. At Chipping Barnet (where we met this morning) the library will lose 33 staff hours (down from 56.5 hours at present). Other libraries will lose more than half of their size and be reduced to volunteer only provision.

Services lost or weakened. Jobs cuts. And those in the community who need them most left to suffer.

“Our members in Barnet have been at the sharp end, with the council outsourcing anything it can. The spirit shown by our library workers today is a tremendous example to us all – and we will stand by them as they fight for their jobs.”

Dave Prentis,

UNISON General Secretary

unison – standing-up-to-the-easycouncil

#BarnetStrikers

#SaveBarnetLibraries

Message of support from Hendon Labour Party

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The strike action being taken by Barnet’s library staff is a direct result of Tory led Barnet Council’s decision to cut the library service. Almost 50% of the jobs will be lost in this unprincipled and ideologically driven action that goes to the heart of the community.
 
The Library service is one of the most well loved public services in the country with thousands of Barnet residents using the service each and every week. Whether its young children with their parents exploring the wonders of books for the first time, GCSE and A level students using the library space for studying, seniors taking the opportunity to read newspapers and magazines or any one of us borrowing books to read at our leisure, the library service is central to a civilised society.
 
The Barnet council cuts seek to take much of this away and all of us will be the worse for it. Over the last year thousands of Barnet residents have campaigned to keep the service. Despite the campaign the cuts will mean:
§  Library posts will be cut by 46%, a loss of 52 full time equivalent posts
§  Staffed hours will be reduced by 70% (despite overwhelming opposition to this from respondents to the Council’s Library consultations)
§  Unaccompanied under 15 year-olds will not be able to use libraries for most of their opening hours
§  Library space to be reduced, thus cutting study space and book stock
§  Four libraries will be run in the future by “community groups”, volunteers replacing, not supplementing, professional library staff.
The continuing community support for the library workers and the strike action they have been forced to take will send a clear message to the Council that enough is enough. The Library service should be protected.
 
 
Sian John – Chair, Hendon Constituency Labour Party
Mike Barker – Acting Secretary, Hendon Constituency Labour Party

Solidarity Message from Barnet Trades Union Council

Community, Libraries, Local, Solidarity, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

 

To our brothers and sisters in Barnet UNISON – your fight against the privatisation and decimation of Public Services by the ideologically driven Tories in our Borough is an inspiration to the Trade Union movement.

Libraries are a beacon of any civilised society, providing a safe environment where generations of our community have benefited from this vital social service, helping to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots. 

Libraries are spaces where people of all ages and all backgrounds can practice lifelong learning, something that the Tories in our Borough well understand and find distasteful.

We stand with you in your fight against this attack on our community.

In Solidarity,

Barnet Trades Union Council

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Message of Solidarity from Barnet NUT

Libraries, Local, Solidarity, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

A message of support to library workers organised by Barnet Unison

Barnet NUT gives 100% support to the forthcoming strike by our fellow workers in Barnet Libraries. Of course we extend this support in the spirit of worker solidarity – an injury to one is an injury to all. But we also support you because of the valuable work you do in performing such an important public sector and public education role for all the residents of Barnet. Without your contribution our residents and our children will be so much the poorer.

We salute you for standing up for your rights and ours.

For your livelihood and ours. For your community and ours.

Solidarity.

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