{"id":457,"date":"2011-04-02T16:01:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T16:01:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-04-02T16:01:57","modified_gmt":"2011-04-02T16:01:57","slug":"a-sad-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/2011\/04\/02\/a-sad-week\/","title":{"rendered":"A sad week"},"content":{"rendered":"

At lot of us have had to say farewell to colleagues as consequence of the budget cuts. Some are friends and colleagues, I have picked up that the mood around the work place is low and staff are fearful of what is to come. <\/span><\/p>\n

I think next week it is really going to hit home when staff see empty chairs where their colleagues used to sit. <\/span><\/p>\n

BUT what next? <\/span><\/p>\n

I hope that the \u2018more for less\u2019 mantra does not start up again. \u00a0<\/span>It has been apparent to me staff carry out an inordinate amount of overtime and in many cases it is unpaid.<\/span><\/b> Often the reason is because staff place great store in being a public servant and the public sector ethos that goes with that. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the coming weeks I will be arranging for UNISON meetings for members to provide feedback on their workplaces. E.g. How are they coping with the undoubted extra workload as a result of the loss of staff?<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep an eye out for these meetings<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/a>Farewell Maggi <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

Maggi Myland has been a friend and union colleague for more than 14 years. Maggi is one of the casualties of the Budget cuts. Barnet UNISON along with other council services has taken a cut, in our case it works out at more than a 50%. <\/span><\/p>\n

What can I say about Maggi? We are going to miss her terribly, but I think it is our members who will miss her<\/b> even more. Her caseload is phenomenal and her empathy<\/b> towards the members who are often in a terrible state of distress<\/b> is unmatched by any other rep I have met. <\/span><\/p>\n

The extra hours after work and at the weekend she has put in for members could never be reimbursed, but Maggi would never ask for it, because she belongs to a rare breed. Trade Unionism is in her blood. She is one of those unable to walk away from someone in distress. <\/span><\/p>\n

Maggi is the worker you need on the team late Friday afternoon when everyone else is winding down and a crisis hits your office. Maggi just gets on with it, she is 100%<\/b> member led. <\/span><\/p>\n

Maggi has held a number of roles in her time with the branch Social Services Convenor, Health & Safety officer, Welfare Officer, and unofficially she has been the UNISON transport\/taxi service. <\/span><\/p>\n

We will be posting details of events for members to say farewell to Maggi. Look out for details soon as I am sure there are lots fo members who will want to wish her well. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>Farewell to Return2Learn and Susan <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

It is a sad to report that we have had our support for Return2learn (R2L) has been cut as part of the Budget cuts. <\/span><\/p>\n

The R2L programme was a fantastic programme which enabled hundreds of staff to have a second opportunity to improve their skills and gain confidence to take further training and other qualifications. <\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement we made with the Council Leader 6 year ago was ground breaking. A lot of councils talked about doing this but in Barnet we did more than talking. <\/span><\/p>\n

The programme was started by Carmen Bruno and for the last three years Susan Timthong has been running the R2L programme. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was an hard act for Susan to follow but she managed it and more. <\/span><\/p>\n

She is totally committed to learning opportunities and has worked tirelessly for staff to have access to learning. <\/span><\/p>\n

I may be wrong, but I guess that training opportunities for Barnet staff are going to be harder to access, yet it is in times like this that learning new skills is even more important.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is strange that in these difficult times that a service that provides FREE training for the Council has been unable to escape the axe!<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan will still be looking to promote Life Long Learning in some capacity, we will hear from her in due course. <\/span><\/p>\n

We will also looking to organise an event to mark the end of the R2L programme. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At lot of us have had to say farewell to colleagues as consequence of the budget cuts. Some are friends and colleagues, I have picked up that the mood around the work place is low and staff are fearful of what is to come. I think next week it is really going to hit home when staff see empty chairs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}