Social workers to take nine more weeks of strike action as talks fail to resolve dispute

Mental health social workers are to take a further nine weeks of strike action after mediated talks with their employer failed to resolve the dispute.

UNISON and Barnet council held talks this week – mediated by employment relations body ACAS – over the pay dispute that had seen practitioners take 27 days’ strike action since September 2023.

The negotiations had followed union members voting overwhelmingly to go back on strike and Barnet UNISON scheduling nine weeks of action, starting next month.

Nine weeks of strikes planned

However, the union said the ACAS talks had proved unsuccessful, meaning it would issue the council with a notification to strike on:

Social workers will walk out from:

• 15 April to 26 April 2024 (two weeks).
• 13 May to 1 June 2024 (three weeks).
• 17 June to 12 July 2024. (four weeks).

The union is calling for the practitioners from the north and south mental health teams, and the approved mental health professional (AMHP) service, to receive similar retention payments to those received by their children’s social worker counterparts in the borough.

20% pay boost sought to tackle loss of staff

This is to tackle significant attrition from the teams, with the union claiming 20 staff had left the teams over the past 18 months.

Currently, the council offers children and families social workers annual retention payments of up to 25% of salary

The council has offered an additional £1,000 per year for the next two years to social workers, occupational therapists and team managers in adults’ services, including the mental health teams,

However, Barnet UNISON said was worth an additional 2.5% of salary on average, well short of the 20% it is claiming for the mental health practitioners.

Pay rates competitive, says council

In response, the council has said that its pay rates were competitive compared with those of other outer London boroughs, and that no authority it had benchmarked itself against paid their mental health social workers market supplements.

It has also said that its AMHPs were paid at the lead practitioner grade, which also compared well with other authorities.

Barnet UNISON said it remained opened to further talks to address the issues raised in the dispute.