Toxic One Barnet Strike lock out - Statement from UNISON - YOU WON'T LOSE PAY

From: John Burgess
Sent: 12 September 2011 10:04
Subject: Barnet UNISON URGENT Update
Importance: High

Dear Members,

I wanted to write to you all and try to provide some clarification and reassurance regarding the very fierce conversation that has been taking place between UNISON and the Council. 

I recognise that you have been bombarded with a mass of communications that will have been very confusing throughout what has been a very fast moving week.

This morning UNISON members have all received a letter from the Council threatening staff that if they take strike action tomorrow they will be deducted a full day’s pay regardless whether they work until 1pm. Furthermore I am hearing that staff are being told that there will be managers on the gates of NLBP to check staff in. If staff do not sign a register stating they will not be taking half day strike action they will be sent home.

The Council is trying to impose what used to be called a ‘Lock out!’

As a UNISON member it was agreed by all that you would take half a day and therefore lose half a day’s pay. That is what most reasonable employers would have deducted under these circumstances. However the Councils actions are neither proportionate and reasonable.

The lateness at which the Council have given this letter demonstrates they fear that UNISON members will all walk out tomorrow.

I can confirm UNISON will make up the cost of any financial loss up until 1pm on Tuesday 13 September.

Messages of support are flooding in from the community and other trade unions.

“John

As a Barnet resident and public sector employee I wanted to send a quick email to express my support for you and your members and the proposed “Barnet Independence Day” action on Tuesday. As someone who has experienced being outsourced but who was then fortunate enough to get back into the public sector, my experience tells me that it would be inconceivable for a contractor to take over delivery on the scale intended by the London Borough of Barnet without there being both a degradation of services and in the terms of conditions for staff who are transferred; this is how private companies make their profit from such contracts.

Hopefully your campaign will open a few more Barnet residents eyes to what is going on and more importantly, to what we might end up with in Barnet in terms of a service from our local authority. I wish you and Barnet Unison all the best and will try and join you at the Town Hall for at least part of the rally on Tuesday evening.”

I have recently had a message of support from the PCS union. They recently won a battle with their employer who was seeking to transfer their jobs out of the country. Members all voted to take strike action and they won. To read the full article click here

We anticipate members will be angry and confused and have booked the Oak Room, Building 4, 12 – 2pm

Tomorrow is your chance to make your voice heard loud and clear.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

www.barnetunison.me.uk

Toxic One Barnet Strike Update

Reports are reaching the Barnet Eye that Barnet Council staff are being told that if they go on strike for 1/2 day, they will be locked out for the rest of the day. A classic Toxic One Barnet solution. If it is bad, make it twice as bad  - Durrr !!!!!!

Do you suppose that if Toxic One Barnet CEO Nickerless Walkley stubs his toe, he hits the other one with a hammer to make it better?

And who suffers. Ultimately the taxpayer who is relying on these clowns to manage a service on our behalf.

Could you make it up? Read my post on Saturday regarding leadership -  http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2011/09/barnet-council-leadership-special.html - they haven't got a clue. It is likely that if they prevent staff coming in, they'll have to pay them anyway as they have a contract of employment that says they can take industrial action without suffering this crap. So we'll be giving the staff a free half day. It's called the law dummies !

Barnet Council Leadership special : A message to Nick Walkley, Andrew Travers and Richard Cornelius - DFLOTO Weekly Broadcast

Having seen the absolute chaos into which Barnet Council is descending and the appalling judgement displayed in spending taxpayers money on billboards to advertise a message from the Barnet CEO Nick Walkley, I feel it is my civic duty to say a few words on leadership to the people running Barnet Council.

First, let me explain in what capacity and who I am representing when I write this. I am writing this as the "De facto Leader of the Opposition in Barnet (DFLOTO)". This is not a title I intend adopting - except to issue a weekly proclamation on this blog (a la Nick Walkley'Andrew Travers), I am purely using it for the purposes of this message. Why? well last night I ended up having a discussion over a glass or two of Guinness with a good friend, who is intelligent, successful and insightful. We were discussing the chaos at Barnet Council and he said "Rog, you have a duty as the de facto Leader of the opposition to spell out to them exactly why they are failing as leaders". I retorted "I'm not the de facto leader of anything". He responded that it is clearly the case that I am. He went through the other possible candidates :-

Alison Moore - Labour Leader - "Too timid, too low profile and unprepared to get her hands dirty"
John Burgess - Leader of Unison -  "Represents a vested interest, we need someone non aligned"
The Other Barnet bloggers -  "Not been around as long, not as prolific or not as combative"

He then pointed out that for most people who care about Barnet Council and Barnet politics, this blog is the first port of call. Many people then check the sidebar to see what the other blogs have to say. Most of the Councillors read it and it gets 30,000 hits a month. He finished off by saying "Rog, if you hadn't started blogging, the Barnet political landscape would be completely different. None of the other bloggers can say that. He finally said "How many hits a day do you get from Barnet Council? - someone there is listening to what you say".

So in my new found role, conferred over a pint of Guinness by a committee of one, here is the first of my

---------------------------------------

De Facto Leader of the Opposition in Barnet Broadcast.

Dear friends (esp Nick Walkley, Andrew Travers and Richard Cornelius),

After a tumultuous week at North London Business Park, I call on you to spend five minutes contemplating leadership and what makes a good leader. What separates the careers of men such as Alexander the Great from the Grand Old Duke of York?

A successful Leader has the complete confidence of those they lead. Whilst on many occasions those people may question judgements, they have the confidence in the leadership to know that any questions raised will be dealt with in a fair and reasonable manner and concerns, if genuine will be taken on board. A good leader doesn't have to shout to get their message across. A quiet word will usually do the trick. A good leader is magnamous in victory and dignified in defeat. A good leader knows when to retreat as well as when to advance. A good leader knows when a plan isn't working and will change or completely discard such a plan as soon as the signs of failure are apparent. A good leader respects his adversaries and recognises that they may be as competent or even better leaders than themselves. As such they ensure that they understand their adversaries plans and strategies and if these are superior to their own, they take appropriate action.

A good leader appoints the best people to do the jobs that they can find. Special favour is not shown to cronies and friends. The people working for the leader understand that success will be rewarded and failure must be explained. A good leader empowers those under them to make decisions and give feedback. They ensure that everyone in the organisation pulls in the same direction and cares about the success of the organisation as much as they do.

When disputes occur within the organisation, they show respect and fairness to all parties. They recognise that both parties may be correct in their views, but only one may prevail. In this case it is vital to ensure that the other party fully understands why the decision has been made. It is important to ensure that the loser in the debate is made to feel valued and their efforts recognised.

Finally, leaders sometimes have to make difficult decisions. Trusted colleagues may have to be let go, sometimes through no fault of their own, sometimes because of catastrophic failures on their part. In both cases, it is vital to communicate the "right message" to the rest of the organisation. If a colleague has worked hard for the organisation, but through situation and circumstance can no longer remain part of the organisation, they should be duly rewarded for their hard work, compensated accordingly and leave with the thanks of the organisation. If a colleague has acted dishonestly or through lazyness and incompetence has caused a catastrophic failure, they are entitled to no more than the legal minimum which their contract stipualtes. Any contract which financially insulates staff from the effects of such actions is a failure on the part of the organisation. If the people who look to you for leadership feel that they will not be treated with fairness and respect, the organisation will fail.

A good leader knows what is happening in all parts of the organisation. A good leader will turn up unexpectedly to "rally the troops". A good leader will take a hands on approach to tackling failure and will ensure that they understand the reasons for such failure. A good leader will understand what every individual in their organisation is doing and why that person is vital to the success of the organisation. A good leader will delegate decision making, but not responsibility, and will encourage those who work for them to do the same.

Finally a good leader must be prepared to address the concerns of anyone in the organisation, when all of the usual channels of communication have failed. They must be prepared to meet anyone at any reasonable time if a crisis is looming, to avert that crises. They must accept that compromise is a sign of strength, not weakness if it is in the greater interests of the organisation.

Richard, Nick and Andrew. Please tell me this. In light of what has been happening recently at Barnet Council, do you recognise your Leadership values in the description above? Do you feel you have displayed sound judgement and fairness? Do you take responsibility? Have you treated people with fairness? Have you been prepared to meet with the Unions and discuss the issues at any time and at any place?

I'm sorry to say that if you have not done these things, then you really have not shown the Leadership qualities, which the people of Barnet should rightly expect from you.

Yours Sincerly

Roger Tichborne

De Facto Leader of the Opposition in Barnet (for the purposes of this proclaimation)
************* Update 10.51 ******************
I emailed the text of the proclaimation to the Holy Trinity (Ricky, Nicky & Thicky) and got this back from Nicky (Barnet Council CEO) in the week leading up to an industrial dispute.  Need I say anything else on the subject :-

I am now on leave until Monday 12th September.

Andrew Travers (Deputy CE) is deputising for me. For any urgent items please contact the Executive Office on 0208 359 7001.


Nick Walkley
Chief Executiv

An open letter to Barnet Council employees from the Barnet Eye

Dear employee of Barnet Council,

Today you will have seen huge billboards appearing all over North London Business Park with a signed message from Barnet Council CEO Nick Walkley.

Picture courtesy of http://vickim57.blogspot.com/

Many  Barnet Council employees read the Barnet Eye and regularly get in touch with us about all manner of issues within the council. The Barnet Eye is aware how embarrassing the continual examples of mismanagement, PR gaffes and hair brained initiatives are for the ordinary staff of Barnet Council. We know how galling it must be to see armies of consultants on huge fees earning small fortunes, writing reports which will never get read, describing processes that they know cannot be implemented.

In the face of such clear attempts to intimidate staff, almost unprecedented in local government industrial relations, many staff may be wondering whether an industrial dispute is a prudent move. As most staff live in Barnet and care passionately about the services they deliver and the people they serve, they may worry that industrial action is not the answer and there may be another way to go to prevent a calamity for them, the people they serve and the Barnet Council organisation.

The Barnet Eye is three years old next month. In that time, we have covered disaster after disaster at Barnet Council. We've seen dozens of reports, explicity saying that Future Shape and now One Barnet will fail. Many of these have been written by the Council's own auditors. We've seen a massive corporate failure in the shape of the Metpro  Fiasco. We've seen reports detailing how the Council have outsourced data centres and now they are dangerous. We've seen reports detailing how One Barnet has no proper controls, milestones or project plans. We've seen huge legal fees racked up as a result of previous outsourcing exercises.

If logic or common sense came into the equation, Barnet Council would have called time on the One Barnet process long ago and saved millions in consultant fees. Sadly we have a deputy CEO who is a consultant and is committed to the concept. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he persists in ploughing on. His boss, CEO Nick Walkley, like any aggressive bully who is losing an argument, has taken the path of trying to shout louder, knowing that he's already lost the argument. He is seeking to win the argument by intimidatinon, using huge posters, because he knows he cannot win the arguments based on the facts.

Whilst industrial action should always be the last resort, the Barnet trades Unions have tried everything else. Logic, reason, expert advice, marches, discussions. There is nowhere else left to go with Barnet Council and it's current Tory leadership. It is clear that the executive of Barnet Council is worried, why else take such desperate action? This is why industrial action is a powerful tool in negotiation. It will not be easy. Barnet is hell bent on it's path. It is like a runaway train where the driver has had a brain haemorrage and it is heading for a cliff at full pelt with no one in control.

Do not be intimidated. Do not be fooled. The only reason Barnet have resorted to putting up these hugely expensive posters is because they know the game is up. Barnet Unison has a very long record of being a most reasonable Union. Barnet has not strikes by public sector workers or action on this scale for a very long time. It is clear to any rational person that Barnet Council is unreasonable. It is clear they have no coherent strategy. The sooner that the whole matter is settled and they think again, the better. If you let them get away with this, they will destroy the public services and public finances of Barnet Council. Even the the Conservatives know this. That is why last yeat, they nearly threw the former Leader out and replaced her with Councillor Mark Shooter, a man known to think One Barnet is a complete farce. He was only prevented by a few unprinicipled councillors taking promotions to switch sides.

In short, if you back down from this battle, you will lose everything. If you can force Barnet Council to see sense, you may just save the Council and the people of Barnet will owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

I have written this blog as a labour of love for the people of Barnet for the last three years. Unlike the army of Consultants I'm not paid to do it. Over this period I've read thousands of documents and talked to dozens of experts about one barnet. I've not seen a single shred of evidence which has credibly shown how it can be made to work or save the taxpayer money. If there was Nick Walkley would have put that on huge billboards around NLBP and other Tory councils would be beating a path to his door. That is how I know I'm on the right track in my analysis. Stick together, unity is strength.