Search Results for: one barnet

Urgent feedback on ACAS/Your Choice Barnet meeting  

Dear Colleagues

At our meeting on Monday 22 September at ACAS HQ UNISON raised a concern that Your Choice Barnet (YCB) was being unfairly treated by Barnet Council.

I am referring to the Pension employer contributions YCB has to make to all members of the Local Government Pension.

For council staff the Pension contributions can be broken down into three parts

Employee contribution variable % depending on salary level.

Employer contribution 14.5 % for future benefits.

Employer contribution 9.8% for past Pension Deficit  

The total amount paid by the employer equates to 24.3%.

Barnet UNISON has been investigating what has been happening in relation to Pension contributions since mass outsourcing started in early 2012.

What we have found is that YCB is having to pay 9.8% contribution towards the historic pension deficit accrued prior to outsourcing.

It is clear that this financial burden seriously inhibits the financial viability of YCB and does not reflect the true economic conditions for delivering the service.

In short the Council is imposing a cost on YCB which is not directly related to the service they are providing.

It is well documented that YCB is in financial difficulties otherwise why would they have had to attack low paid care workers on two occasions in the last 18 months.

To learn that the Council has chosen to impose another financial penalty on YCB when it has such a precarious financial situation is difficult to understand, which is why we have requested Barnet Council to remove this requirement.

Private sector being given favourable treatment.

Our investigations have revealed the following three private contractors, who won contracts to deliver services in Barnet, are not having to pay this 9.8% penalty.

NSL – Pension Fund Committee, 20 December 2011 at paragraph 6.3 it states:

“NSL will become an admitted body to the Pension Fund under a closed agreement. The agreement will be fully funded at the point of transfer and the contractor will pick up employer pension costs associated with future liabilities. Provision has been made in the business case both for the costs associated with a pension bond, and also for costs that the Council will retain in respect of the past deficit for these employees.”

Capita Re – Pension Fund Committee 9 September 2013 at paragraph 6.4 it states:

“The joint venture will pay the future contribution rate to meet any pension fund liabilities. The council has retained the element of the budget that pays for the repayment of the past service pension fund deficit.”

OSC – Pensions Fund Committee 18 March 2014 at paragraph 7.2 it states:

“Staff will transfer on a “fully funded basis”. This means that the pensions’ deficit will not transfer to OCS from Barnet in respect of these staff. The total deficit retained by Barnet has been calculated at £98k. £25k per annum needs to be retained from Adults and Communities budget to fund the repayment of the deficit over the lifetime of the contract.”

We are in the middle of a dispute over the 9.5% pay cut imposed on our members working for YCB. The knowledge that yet again the private sector is being treated more favourably than YCB is inexcusable.

If Barnet Council were to do the right thing and treat YCB like they have done with Capita, the 9.5% pay cut would be wiped out and the dispute would be over. It is that simple.

We have written to Barnet Council asking them to consider our request and do the right thing for the services and the loyal hard working low paid care staff who provide excellent services.

We would like to express our solidarity with YCB workers who are resisting cuts to their wages of nearly 10%.

We met with YCB workers on the picket lines and they told what the devastating impact these pay cuts would mean for them, their families and also the service users. They are also concerned that this will be only the first of a series of attacks on their terms and conditions.

When the Council’s Cabinet Resources Committee approved the setting-up of YCB in 2012, it stated that:

“The obligations and risk placed on the LATC will subsequently be fully passed down to the operating subsidiary companies. Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.”

We therefore call upon Barnet Council as the only share holder in the Barnet Group and therefore the owner of YCB to intervene urgently to save YCB and ensure that care staff are not subjected to this savage wage cut. We have also written to the Leader of the Council to instruct a representative of the Council to attend the  ACAS talks on Monday 22^nd September, and help to bring the dispute to a satisfactory resolution, for the sake of staff and service users alike.”

Cllr. Amy Trevethan, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Chipping Barnet and Underhill Councillor and

Cllr. Paul Edwards Underhill Councillor

Your Choice Barnet ‘Disloyal – Really?’

“Your Choice chief executive Tracey Lees said: “We are extremely grateful to our loyal and committed staff who pulled together over two days to continue to provide their usual quality of service to our customers. We are prepared, as stated last week, to meet Unison and ACAS in an attempt to avert further strike action.” (Barnet Press 10 September 2014)

Our members have been in contact with our branch to say how disappointed they are to read the comment attributed to Your Choice chief executive Tracey Lees.

Colleagues who went to work on the strike days at Your Choice Barnet have been described as being “loyal” by the Chief Executive Officer of the Barnet Group. So are we to understand that those who took strike action are disloyal?

UNISON does not find this approach helpful. It paints a negative picture of those who took strike action. The Chief Executive Officer would do well to remember what our members in Flower Lane, a specialist unit for autism, did in their own time last weekend.

For the last 3 years workers at Flower Lane have held a fete on a Saturday which is a community event bringing together service users, parents/ carers and the local community for an afternoon. It raises awareness of autism and it also raises money.

The event consists of different stalls with different food on offer, bric-a-brac, crafts and a barbeque. There is are games for children and this year there was live music. Local businesses were involved in the event and they helped by donating gifts etc. The Mayor of Barnet attended the previous 2 years, but was not there this year. It is a fun day out for all the family. A colleague, who 2 days later took strike action, described it as a great day.

Organising for this event means workers sort out the equipment and supplies for it – often in their own time – to make sure it happens. They turn up around 10am on the Saturday to make sure everything is in place for the midday start. After the event they then stay on to clear up. This means they do not leave until around 5.30pm. The event helps build the team as a whole and from talking to the colleagues the sense of pride they have in their work and their reputation is worth the effort.

Two days later the same colleagues were on strike. They did not do this because they are disloyal. They did not do this because they want to cause pain to service users. Last Saturday and discussions we have had with our members about picking dates for strike action demonstrates our members are passionate about the job they do and the service they provide. A 9.5% pay cut is hurtful enough. For the Chief Executive to imply disloyalty is disrespectful to the hard work our members do.

Your Choice Barnet – ACAS – UNISON response

UNISON had met with the employer in June of this year at ACAS in an attempt to reach an agreement and in fact we were able to pull the Industrial Action scheduled in June on the basis of a temporary agreement we reached with YCB to reinstate the pay of our members and to continue with thorough negotiations to explore alternatives to the imposition of a 9.5% cut in pay to the workforce. The outcome of those negotiations resulted in a revised offer which, not surprisingly, was not one our members felt they could accept (8.31% pay cut). However, what the negotiations did reveal was the extent to which Barnet Council’s charging policies and its practices undermines the ability of YCB to survive financially. YCB is wholly owned by the Council.

UNISON has requested a 3-way meeting with the Council and YCB as it is difficult to see how negotiations can progress positively without such a meeting. The Council has refused to be a part of this.

UNISON is prepared to meet with YCB at ACAS. In fact we had proposed meeting at ACAS Friday 12^th September but we understand other parties were not available. We are now trying to identify another suitable dates.

When is failure not a failure……..

“Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.” (Source: Page 57 of the Business Case approved at Cabinet Resources Committee 24.May 2011 http://j.mp/WtVImC)

Since the service transferred out of the Council in February 2012

· Your Choice Barnet (YCB) had to take a £1 million loan from Barnet Homes (100% owned by Barnet Council)

· Your Choice Barnet do not have the money to pay back a £1 million loan

· Barnet Council are holding back payment of hundreds of thousands pounds every year from Your Choice Barnet

· Barnet Council are not referring new business to Your Choice Barnet Unison

· A third of the workforce were made redundant last year

This promise made in a public council committee meeting and it is our view YCB is failing and as they said in the committee “commercial risk remains with the Council” in which case they must take part in negotiations with Barnet UNISON & YCB.

The only way for YCB to be financially viable would be if: 

1. Barnet Homes writes off the £1 million loan.

2. Barnet Council stop penalising YCB for ‘no shows’.

3. Barnet Council pays up front to YCB in order to help the cash flow situation.

4. Barnet Council pays the going rate for the services being offered.

5. Barnet Council conducts an immediate investigation as to why Adult Social care services have referred only a handful of referrals in the last 2 and half years.

6. Senior management and other Service Level Agreement costs imposed on YCB are reduced.

7. YCB & Barnet Council find a more efficient way to invoice for services. The current arrangement is that Barnet Group invoice Barnet Council then YCB invoice Barnet Group.

8. YCB is allowed to independently procure its own support services and not be forced to use Capita CSG services.

See background to the dispute below:

Background

YCB imposed a 9.5% cut in pay to all their staff starting from 1 April 2014. Barnet UNISON carried out an indicative ballot to ascertain if members wanted to accept the 9.5% cut or if they wanted to be formally balloted. UNISON members overwhelming voted to be balloted for strike action.

UNISON organised a legal strike ballot and members voted 100% for strike action this was an amazing result.

ACAS became involved and UNISON agreed to attend a meeting together with ACAS and YCB. At this meeting an agreement was reached that staff would have their pay reinstated for just one month, whilst further negotiations took place.

These further discussions elicited more financial information in an attempt to ascertain the financial viability of YCB and to see if savings could be made from ‘expenditure/overheads’.

We asked them to look at savings across the following headings:

· Senior management costs

· Financial services

· Accommodation costs

· IT services

· Business Improvement costs

· Renegotiate the terms of the £1 million loan from Barnet Homes.

YCB then made a revised offer of a 8.31% pay cut for our members, further reductions were offered if staff wanted to lose some of their annual leave. Our members were given a detailed chart showing the further reductions of the 9.5% depending on how much annual leave they lost.

On a 73% turnout 90% voted in favour of taking action to reinstate their pay. Actually more members took part in this third ballot in three months and more voted for strike action.

For more details read Your Choice Barnet (YCB) “The real deal” here

Barnet UNISON issued the following letter today 21 August 2014 to all of our members working for Your Choice Barnet (YCB) in response to the YCB letter sent 19 August 2014 here

“Dear Colleague

You will have received a letter from Julie Riley on 19^th August regarding the decision to take strike action which is clearly designed to frighten you into not taking strike action. We want to set the record straight on some of the arguments presented in that letter.

It is true YCB was very open to UNISON about its accounts and this enabled UNISON to fully understand the dire financial state of YCB. As YCB have referred to their budget we believe that in the interests of transparency we strongly recommend that all of our members write back to Julie Riley and request a copy of the financial information shared with UNISON. It is important that staff, who are key stakeholders in YCB, can see the facts for themselves.

Contrary to what is contained within the letter UNISON made a number of suggestions, most of which were not accepted:

· Barnet Homes (BH) writes off the £1 million loan

· Barnet Council stop penalising YCB for ‘no shows’

· Barnet Council pays up front to YCB in order to help the cash flow situation

· Barnet Council pays the going rate for the services being offered.

· Barnet Council conducts an immediate investigation as to why Adult Social care services have referred only a handful of referrals in two and half years.

· Senior management and other Service Level Agreement costs imposed on YCB are reduced.

· YCB & Barnet Council find a more efficient way to invoice for services. The current arrangement is that Barnet Group invoices Barnet Council then YCB invoices Barnet Group.

· YCB is allowed to independently procure its own support services and not be forced to use Capita CSG services.

It is important to note that the accounts showed that YCB will balance its books only if you accept a 9.5% pay cut and YCB pays nothing back on its loan to BH. However, YCB were adamant they must pay back the £1 million. YCB were unable to tell us how they would find the money to pay off £1,000,000 over the next three years.

Our fear was that YCB would have to come back to our members for more money, which is why we asked in the meeting if they could give an assurance that this would not happen. As you know YCB were unable to give such an assurance.

We are concerned that our members cannot keep on ‘bailing out’ YCB every year.

YCB makes the point about still paying the London Living Wage for the assistant support workers (£8.80 per hour) but that is for this year only. The London Living Wage rises annually at the rate of the ‘cost of living’ (unlike your wage). This will mean those at YCB on £8.80 per hour should get a pay rise of around 3% next year for YCB to stick to this commitment. However, this increase was not contained within their budget.

We note in the letter which states “It is not the Council’s intention to take the services back in-house, however if there is no other option but to step in they would be likely to find other providers”. Our reps and members have reported back that they perceive this message as a direct threat that they should ‘shut up and accept the 9.5% cut’ and be grateful that they don’t get handed over to a private company.

I would like to remind members of the following statement made at Cabinet Resources Committee 24 May 2011 “Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.” (p.57 of the Business Case)

We are very clear that if UNISON’s recommendations made to YCB are not accepted then the future viability of YCB is at serious risk and Barnet Council should honour their statement on 24 May 2011.

UNISON members have taken part in three ballots over the last six months and on each occasion more UNISON members have voted ‘yes’ to reject the 9.5% pay cut. On Wednesday 20 August 2014 we had a meeting with reps and members and have agreed a programme of strike action and some demonstrations, details of which will follow shortly.

Please note the first demonstration will be outside Hendon Town Hall on Monday September 1^st at 6 pm.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Davies                                    John Burgess

Branch Chair                                    Branch Secretary

Your Choice Barnet (YCB) “The real deal”

Background

YCB imposed a 9.5% cut in pay to all their staff starting from 1 April 2014. Barnet UNISON carried out an indicative ballot to ascertain if members wanted to accept the 9.5% cut or if they wanted to be formally balloted. UNISON members overwhelming voted to be balloted for strike action.

UNISON organised a legal strike ballot and members voted 100% for strike action this was an amazing result.

ACAS became involved and UNISON agreed to attend a meeting together with ACAS and YCB. At this meeting an agreement was reached that staff would have their pay reinstated for just one month, whilst further negotiations took place.

These further discussions elicited more financial information in an attempt to ascertain the financial viability of YCB and to see if savings could be made from ‘expenditure/overheads’.

We asked them to look at savings across the following headings:

· Senior management costs

· Financial services

· Accommodation costs

· IT services

· Business Improvement costs

· Renegotiate the terms of the £1 million loan from Barnet Homes

YCB then made a revised offer of a 8.31% pay cut for our members, further reductions were offered if staff wanted to lose some of their annual leave. Our members were given a detailed chart showing the further reductions of the 9.5% depending on how much annual leave they lost.

On a 73% turnout 90% voted in favour of taking action to reinstate their pay. Actually more members took part in this third ballot in three months and more voted for strike action.

Key ongoing issues throughout the negotiations so far

· Was YCB able to generate enough new income to reduce the need for cuts to staff?

·Was YCB able to generate enough new income to pay off the £1million loan to Barnet Homes?

·Over the last 18 months there has been a 30% reduction in staff as staff have been made redundant in order to save money for YCB.

· Staff working in Supported Living & Valley Way have had their ‘out-of-hours’ payments slashed in order to save money for YCB

· YCB have increased the numbers of assistant support workers and reduced the numbers of support workers in order to save money for YCB

· YCB is wholly owned subsidiary of The Barnet Group which is wholly owned London Borough of Barnet, YCB had to take a loan of £1 million from Barnet Homes (another company which is wholly owned by the London Borough of Barnet through The Barnet Group)

· YCB said they had not been made aware of the cash flow problems as a result of moving from block contract payments.

· YCB were not resourced for the level of invoicing necessary when the payment moved from block payments.

· YCB were unprepared to cope with no payments for ‘no shows’.

“What is a ‘no show?”

This is where the service user does not attend a service, this could be for planned reasons such as holidays or hospital appointments or through sickness. It is has been shocking to hear that the impact of this critical factor had not been identified as a serious risk to the financial viability of YCB. We have learnt that although discussions have been had with LBB over ‘no shows’ the financial losses are a significant factor in the future viability of YCB. We estimate about 50% of the 9.5 % cut to our members is as a result of the financial penalty imposed by Barnet Council on YCB.

· It has become clear over the last 18 months that the financial viability of YCB rests solely with Barnet Council.

· Barnet Council is penalising YCB by not paying for ‘no shows’

· Barnet Council is hardly making new referrals to YCB

· Barnet Council is not paying YCB the going rate for the service provided “Prior to the salary reductions changes we were being paid a market rate of £18.43 per hour and it was costing us £21.81 per hour and this was not sustainable” (source: Hendon Times 3 June 2014)

· In response to the cuts to our members there has been some commentary (inside YCB and in the public domain) that if only YCB could grow new business the profits would negate the need to make pay cuts to the staff.

· Barnet UNISON decided it was critical to our negotiations that we look into the possibility of generating new income in order to see if this was an area which if successful would enable the cuts to be withdrawn or reduced. In our negotiations with YCB we asked for details for each service in order to see if they could deliver new business and if so what any new income would mean to staff in terms of their 9.5% pay cut.

· For Supported Living we learnt that any new business would not deliver a financial benefit to the business so no point in looking to grow this service.

· The two of the three day services are intensive support for service users so even some marginal increases in numbers of service users mean that there is not enough marginal profit to generate meaningful income either to mitigate the cuts to our members pay or support the future viability of YCB.

· Barnet UNISON felt there was too much money spent on back office services for an organisation which employees only 105 fte staff. YCB responded by offering a marginal 1.19 % saving from their ‘expenditure/overheads’which meant the 9.5% cut would reduce to an 8.31% cut for our members.

· Because our members rejected the revised offer YCB have said they will not make the identified 1.19 % back office saving.

· Our members reported ongoing threats that they should “forget about returning to Barnet Council and be more worried about being privatised” needless to say this did not go down well with members!

· YCB were unable to give any assurances to staff that if they accepted the 8.31% cut this year, YCB would not come back for further staff savings next year.

· YCB were unable to explain how they were going to find the money to make the first repayment due in 2014/15 of the £1million loan over three years to Barnet Homes.

It was clear that the only way for YCB to be financially viable would be if:

· Barnet Homes writes off the £1 million loan.

· Barnet Council stop penalising YCB for ‘no shows’.

· Barnet Council pays up front to YCB in order to help the cash flow situation

· Barnet Council pays the going rate for the services being offered.

· Barnet Council conducts an immediate investigation as to why Adult Social care services have referred only a handful of referrals in the last 2 and half years.

· Senior management and other Service Level Agreement costs imposed on YCB are reduced.

· YCB & Barnet Council find a more efficient way to invoice for services. The current arrangement is that Barnet Group invoice Barnet Council then YCB invoice Barnet Group.

· YCB is allowed to independently procure its own support services and not be forced to use Capita CSG services.