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Why are we on strike?
Six years ago Barnet Council introduced a policy known as Future Shape which morphed into ‘easyCouncil’*.This imposed a series of tariffs on residents wishing to access a range of services. A basic service would be offered to residents at a fixed price, but ‘fast track’ services might be available if you paid extra.
This approach was quickly abandoned by the consultant driven One Barnet Programme, which led to the following Council Services being outsourced/privatised in the space of three years:
1. Social Care for Adults with disabilities to Your Choice Barnet
2. Housing Options to Barnet Homes
3. Parking Services to NSL
4. Revenues & Benefits, IT, HR & Payroll, Pensions, Health & Safety, Finance, Estates, Property Services, Procurement, Projects all now part of Capita CSG
5. Environmental Health, Planning, Building Control, Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium, Highways, Trading Standards & Licensing all now Capita RE
6. Legal Services
7. Registrars & Nationality Services
8. CCTV
9. Music Trust
10. Public Health
11. Mortuary Services.
Over the past three years our members have seen hundreds of colleagues transferred to other employers. This has often meant redundancy as the new employer has moved jobs out of the borough and Greater London to places as far afield as Belfast, Carlisle, Coventry, Southampton and Darlington.
Now we are in the final phase for what remains of Council services.
Barnet has branded this final phase as the ‘Commissioning Council’.
Very few people know what Commissioning really means, but if you work for the Council we all know it means that we will no longer be working for the Council.
On 3 March 2015 Barnet Council agreed its next Five Commissioning Plans all of which are looking at ‘Alternative Delivery Models’, jargon for working for a different employer.
The Council Services now at risk of outsourcing are:
1. Early Years – 13 Children’s Centres
2. Library Services
3. Adults & Communities services
4. Street Scene Services e.g. Waste & Recycling, Street Cleansing, Parks and Transport
5. Education & Skills and School Meals services.
Speaking to the Council
Over the past six years Barnet UNISON has made numerous, well-documented attempts to speak to the Council. Our voice, however, has been drowned out by expensive consultants who appear to have been running the Council for all this time.
We exhausted the internal procedures to try and avoid having to register a dispute. We finally declared a formal dispute with the Council on 4 December 2014.
Despite this on 12 January 2015 Barnet Council made a decision to put Education & Skills and School Meals services out for sale.
Three big multinational contractors are now bidding to win a contract valued at almost £1bn.
We are still waiting for the Council to return to the negotiating table but time is marching on.
Our members want to work for the Council, they want to be directly accountable to the residents of Barnet.
Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will have to place the shareholders’ legal demands before local residents’ needs.
Our members don’t want to work for an employer which uses zero hours contracts.
Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will not pay the London Living Wage as a basic minimum.
Our members don’t want to work for an employer which won’t allow their colleagues to belong to their Pension Scheme, and
Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will take jobs out of the borough.
That’s why 87% of our members working for the Council voted ‘Yes’ to taking strike action.
John Burgess
Branch Secretary
Barnet UNISON
*easyCouncil is back: at a recent Full Council meeting on 14 April Conservative Councillors decided to adopt an easyCouncil approach to Planning Services. If you have the money you can fast track your request!
