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Barnet UNISON Nursery Nurse reps feedback on their successful claim

Austerity, Solidarity, Trades Dispute

“Barnet Nursery Nurses won their appeal! This would not have happened without the support and dedication of John Burgess and Unison. Thank you from us all.”

Beverley (UNISON Nursery Nurse rep).

 

“Barnet unison remained resolute in their commitment throughout this appeal. Showing the importance of working together to ensure ever member has a voice, this was paramount to secure this momenta’s positive conclusion for Barnet Nursery Nurses.”

Elaine Thompson Unison Nursery Nurse Rep.

“Unison has provided steadfast support to the nursery nurses since as far back as 2009. John Burgess in particular advised and guided the three nursery teams that went through the federation process, resulting in a much better staffing structure than had originally been offered.

Throughout every occurrence Unison has kept their members informed and updated so much so that when Unified pay come over the horizon we all had every confidence that our best interests were at the heart of any negotiations they were involved in.  The confidence and determination/ tenacity shown by the Unison team was infectious and made us all the more determined to at least have our say.

Knowing John Burgess had championed others and been successful gave us hope and spurred us on to do our homework, galvanise as workers and put our case to the powers that be. Happily we were successful and I’m sure that with Unison on your side any workers have a fighting chance. Good luck comrades!”
Ruth Kevin (UNISON rep)

 

We want more money for our members

Uncategorised

Dear Barnet UNISON members

UNISON Annual Conference is taking place week commencing 20 June 2017.

In may be a surprise to our members who pay their subscriptions that UNISON branches only receive 23% of the money provided by their members.

https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2017/05/24336.pdf

Please note on page 2 of the UNISON REPORT ON THE 2016 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

It states in Section 6. Funding for Branches and the Regional Pool

“The funding formula agreed at the 2001 Conference came into operation on 1 January 2002. Under the formula at least 23% of subscription income has to be available for direct funding of branches with a further 0.5% available for the direct funding of the regional pool. If the direct funding of branches is not utilised, any balance is credited to the regional pool. Funding available in 2016 was £38.5 million being 23% of subscription income of £163.8 million. In the year £37.7m was credited to branches with the balance of £0.8 million being added to the regional pool.”

So not all of the 23% funding goes to the branches that do almost all of the work for their members.

At UNISON conference the year before on page 2 of the UNISON REPORT ON THE 2015 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

“The funding formula agreed at the 2001 Conference came into operation on 1 January 2002. Under the formula at least 23% of subscription income has to be available for direct funding of branches with a further 0.5% available for the direct funding of the regional pool. If the direct funding of branches is not utilised, any balance is credited to the regional pool. Funding available in 2015 was £38.9 million being 23.5% of subscription income of £165.8 million. In the year £38.1m was credited to branches with the balance of £0.8 million being added to the regional pool.”

I can report that our branch does need more funding in order that we can build on and improve the services we need to provide to our members.

It is clear that 23% for branches and 77% to UNISON HQ and Regional Offices does not represent the best deal for our members.

The challenges that are driving the need for us to do more to support our members are the brutal austerity policies that are destroying our public services.

We have had six years of austerity, one million public sector workers have been sacked in that time, this equates to 465 public sector workers being sacked every day for the past six years. This figure does not include the millions on zero hours contracts and casualised terms & conditions.

The status quo or tinkering with the funding around the margins is simply not sustainable.

It is our member’s money after all, funding needs to go to the “coalface” where branches are struggling to defend and support our members.

One proposal would be that in light of the austerity attacks all branches should as a minimum receive a third (33%) of their member’s subscription as a starting position whilst a review of the 77% takes place.

We are asking members to provide feedback.

Please email the branch at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

GOOD NEWS: Update on proposed sacking of “Barnet Two”

Anti - Racism, Austerity, News, Solidarity, Trades Dispute

Defend the “Barnet Two” update

Today I can confirm that the proposal to sack our only two welfare rights advisors has been suspended.

I will be going in to talks with our members next week.

I want to thank all the council workers who have sent messages of support including solidarity messages from the community and of course BAFTA winner Ken Loach and Ian Hodson President National President Bakers and Allied Food Workers Union BFAWU.

The lesson must be if you don’t challenge decisions then you will never know if you could have made a difference.

I am proud of the “Barnet Two” who despite the incredible stress and pressure they are under have managed to stay positive and focussed. I can see why both of them are excellent Welfare Advisors and why they are a credit to the Council.

Updates will follow.

John Burgess

UNISON rep.

Background links here.

“I am bloody angry”– The Cruellest Cut to Welfare Rights advisors

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2017/04/25/i-am-bloody-angry-the-cruellest-cut-to-welfare-rights-advisors/

URGENT UPDATE “SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE” Update Welfare Rights

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2017/05/04/simply-unbelievable-update-welfare-rights/

 

 

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Barnet Council Group Appeals for school staff

Uncategorised

To: Barnet UNISON members working in Barnet Council community schools.

We are currently supporting individual staff in unique roles with their issues.

However there are a number of staff who are in roles which are covered by what are referred to as Group Appeals.

What is a Group Appeal?

This is an appeal for a job where there are a number of post holders such as Teaching Assistant, ICT technician, Nursery Nurse, School Business Manager.

The impact of a Group Appeal directly impacts on all post holders in that role.

Before Barnet UNISON requests an Appeal we will organise meetings and send out invites for members to come along in order we can explain the process.

We have already had a series of successful meetings with Nursery Nurses who provided UNISON with valuable information about the work they do in the classroom. It is important that if you receive a request to attend a UNISON meeting after work that you try to attend one of them.

What is a formal request for an Appeal?

Barnet UNISON will notify Barnet Council to begin the ballot of members about the Appeal. Barnet Council will send a letter to all staff in that specific role asking staff if they support the Appeal request (a simple Yes or No)

It is really important that all members respond immediately that they want the Appeal to go ahead. Barnet UNISON will notify our members the ballot has begun in order we get a high turnout (we need more than 50%)

Just recently UNISON requested an Appeal for Nursery Nurses and we quickly managed to get over 80% of our members all voting YES to supporting our request to take their case to an Appeal Hearing.

What happens in an Appeal Hearing?

The Appeal hearing will be heard by a member of Human Resources (HR) and a Trade Union rep.

Barnet UNISON reps with the support of the Branch Secretary John Burgess will prepare and present the group appeal for our members.

Barnet UNISON will be submitting Stage 2 Appeals for the following roles:

  • Nursery Nurses
  • Teaching Assistants level 2
  • Teaching Assistants level 3
  • Teaching Assistants level 4
  • Breakfast Club/After Club Level 3
  • Mealtime Supervisors

Before Barnet UNISON officially requests the Stage 2 Appeals we need to discuss the grounds with as many of our members as possible.

In order to try and ensure maximum participation we will invite members to attend a number of meetings in the summer term 2017.

If you are in doubt about the process then please do not hesitate to contact the Barnet UNISON office at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk or ring 0208 359 2088 or go onto our website https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/

Download flyer here sCHOOLS leaflet 1

 

Street Scene ballot result : Massive “In-House” vote – Barnet UNISON

Uncategorised

On 15 March 2017, I attended Barnet Councils Environment Committee where an outsourcing decision was to be discussed.

You can view the meeting online here https://youtu.be/Y24Lm5s-afM

In the meeting one councillor referred to a staff consultation in which only 15 out of over 400 staff responded.

The next day Barnet UNISON Street Scene reps decided to carry out our own consultation.

This time we gave Street Scene staff the opportunity to vote for the In-house option something which had been omitted from the consultation.

In just three days we had 279 responses the results were as follows:

243 staff ticked Strongly Support Street Scene Services run fully by In-House staff.

243 staff ticked Strongly Opposed all other options.

1 member of staff ticked Strongly Support Barnet Group running the service and employing all of the staff.

There were 35 spoilt ballot papers.

Now we wait until Thursday 11 May 2017 to hear their fate for our members working in Street Scene.

 

Robot Wars: Barnet Libraries on the Eve of Destruction

Austerity, Libraries, Local, National

Humans not Machines

What was once one of the finest public Library Services in the UK is about to undergo a transformation that will see it left in ruins. In 2002 Barnet won a Beacon Council award for libraries as a community resource, but since then successive restructures have seen staff numbers and service points cut. The decline will reach an all-time low in April 2017 when the newly restructured Library Service comes into operation.

In April the Library workforce will be reduced by almost half. The Council alleges that their skills, knowledge and experience can be replaced by volunteers and self-service machines.

Four Libraries will be handed over to charities and resident groups to be opened for only fifteen hours each a week.  The people of Mill Hill, South Friern, East Barnet and Childs Hill will lose direct access to a professional library service.

The Council will give these partnership libraries between £352,000 and £384,000 in grants for the first 3 years, money that would be better spent providing a service staffed and run by librarians and other real library workers.

The remaining Council-run libraries will have staff present only for a few hours on most days. Some days will be completely unstaffed. Under 15-years olds not accompanied by an adult will be unable to enter the libraries during these hours.

The Council seems unconcerned how this will affect the public, although aware that;

“The reduction in staffed opening hours will mean less support available in the library to get advice, information and to utilise the resources in the library. This will have the biggest impact on those who may require support to make best use of services at static library sites or are less able, or confident at using libraries without library staff support”

 Barnet Future Library Service 5.9.10)

https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s30694/Barnets%20future%20Library%20Service.pdf

The Council claims that CCTV monitored from a control centre in Cardiff will be sufficient to maintain the safety and security of people using the Libraries. Barnet UNISON disagreed, and continues to disagree, with the Council, citing incidents of anti-social behaviour, physical and verbal abuse and theft that have occurred in libraries, the number of which would be far higher if library staff had not been on site to prevent them.  Barnet UNISON remains unconvinced that the emergency response systems the Council plans for unstaffed hours will be sufficient.

Libraries are also to be reduced in size by up to 90%, as space is hived off to be offered for rent to commercial and community groups. This will leave inadequate study, computer and events space in most libraries. With only a few days to go before the restructure the Council has confirmed only one organisation interested in renting.  Since 2014, when this plan was first announced, Barnet UNISON has been pointing out that the Council’s estimated rental income of £546,000 by 2019/20 is very unlikely to be met

The Council claims it is being forced into reducing Library staff numbers, space and direct control of all libraries because of the need to save £1.6 million from the Libraries Budget by 2020. But the Council allocated over £6.5 million to implement the changes. In December the Council made known it was allocating over £14 million for “library procurements”. On the 8th December 2016 Barnet UNISON asked the Council a number of questions regarding this “procurement” spend. Because the Council did not answer our questions in full we resubmitted them on the 16th January 2017 and on the 14th February 2017. We still await a meaningful response

This is a lot of money to be spent on reducing the assets, efficiency, accessibility and safety of a service.

Barnet UNISON and the Save Barnet Library Campaigns have argued with the Council for over two and a half years that a machine and volunteer dependant Library Service would lead to a decline. The Council’s own consultations with the public found little if any support for their plan.  But the Council has consistently failed to address these arguments instead repeating the mantra that no libraries in Barnet were being closed and that opening hours were being extended. But when the new Library structure is implemented in April opening hours will not be any longer than at present.  The promised extended opening hours are now being postponed until the autumn. Only five of the Council-run libraries will be open while building work to reduce library space is carried out and the four “partnership” Libraries will stagger their hours between them.

In April the people of Barnet will find their library service much reduced. It is likely that many current and potential library users, particularly children, will find Barnet Libraries hard to access, information and advice difficult to come by, containing very little study space and the range of stock and services a shadow of what was once on offer.  This is likely to lead to a decline in use and an excuse by the Council to close Libraries

Our members working in libraries will continue as they have done in the past to try and provide the best service they can. But their low numbers, limited staffed opening hours and lack of space will be insurmountable barriers. Barnet UNISON will strongly oppose any attempts by the Council to place blame on library staff for the decline in the Service and any attempt to shift responsibility for any harm resulting from unstaffed opening hours.

Our members will be the first in line to face the frustration of the public with the restructured Library Service, but those responsible are the present ruling administration of the Council. Public dissatisfaction with the Library Service is likely to grow and may well have an influence on how Barnet residents vote in the next local elections.

Barnet UNISON will continue to campaign for a restoration of the Library Service. The people of Barnet need and deserve a professional library service staffed by real library workers.

Barnet UNISON call on the Council to stop the restructure and work constructively with those people working in and using libraries and with the wider community to build a Library Service that can once again rightly claim to be one of the best in the UK.

Further details on the Library changes and the Barnet UNISON’s campaign to stop it can be found on.

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/?s=libraries

 

 

 

 

 

 

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