A union has threatened court action over a council’s plan to bringing in an external service to cover mental health social workers during a nine-week strike over staffing levels in their teams.
UNISON has sent a legal letter to Barnet Council’s chief executive, John Hooton, stating that the planned move is unlawful ‘strike breaking’ and urging the authority to desist or risk court action.
However, the council has maintained that its action is both lawful and necessary to enable it to manage risk and meet its statutory duties during the strike by about 20 staff in its north and south mental health teams and its approved mental health professional (AMHP) service.
The law on covering strike action
Regulations prohibit employment agencies from supplying workers to an organisation to cover the duties of a striking employees or other employees covering those on strike, so long as the industrial action is legitimate (regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003).
However, guidance on the 2003 regulations stipulates that employers can cover a striking worker’s work by contracting out the service, which appears to be what Barnet Council is planning to do.
“These are functions of [London Borough of Barnet (LBB)] and we assume that LBB will remain accountable for their delivery. It is therefore not the case that LBB is outsourcing a service; rather, it is procuring workers to provide the exact services normally provided by its own workers during a period of strike.
“Therefore, should LBB procure strike cover as described in this letter, it would be procuring the services of an employment business, Regulation 7 of the regulations would be breached and a criminal offence would be committed under the Employment Agencies Act 1973.”
Legal threat
While any such offence is committed by the employment agency concerned, UNISON said the authority itself may thereby be guilty of offences relating to encouraging others to commit a crime.
The union urged Hooton to confirm in writing by 28 May that the authority will not seek to procure external workers to provide cover for striking employees, adding that it reserved its “right to notify the relevant authorities of any potential criminal offences and also to seek relief via the courts, including injunctive relief through judicial review proceedings, should you fail to provide the requested confirmations and agreements by 28 May 2024”.
‘We are acting within the law’ – council
However, in response, a council spokesperson said: “We are acting within the law to ensure we can keep residents safe and deliver our statutory responsibilities through the strike.
“We are now at the point where the industrial action has significantly reduced our ability to respond to residents’ requests for support with their mental health. This outsourced service will be needed imminently to manage the risk and to enable the council to effectively respond to urgent referrals in a reasonable timeframe during UNISON extended nine-week block strike action. This service is lawful and would provide a minimum level of cover to ensure we meet our statutory responsibilities.”
What union is calling for
The union is calling for staff on the three mental health teams to receive a 10% recruitment and retention payment on top of salary to tackle what it describes as a “staffing exodus”, with 25 social workers due to have left the teams over the course of 22 months, including currently planned departures.
This is a drop from its original claim of a 20% payment.
However, the council has rejected the premise that there are recruitment and retention issues specific to the three teams and has instead offered a 5% payment to all social workers, occupational therapists and senior practitioners in adult social care – about 200 staff. According to UNISON, the council has admitted this is more expensive than the union’s claim.
‘A justifiable and fair offer’
However, the council spokesperson added: “UNISON’s claim for a 10% recruitment and retention payment to just three out of six mental health worker teams is not justifiable under the council’s policy. We have made a justifiable and fair offer of 5% for all social work staff, and this offer is still open.
“If UNISON suspends the strike, then we are more than willing to continue to sit at the negotiating table, including to discuss minimum service levels needed to keep residents safe.”
UNISON’s branch secretary, John Burgess, said it was “deeply disappointing that we are where we are”.
“I am still hopeful that someone in a leadership position in Barnet Council will approach UNISON about meeting us halfway to end the dispute and try and restore stability within the mental health social work teams,” he added.
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Good for them. The residents would have no mental health support, ever, without the team that has taken real-terms pay cuts, reduced resources and increased workload year after year.
Why do LA’s and government act like there is a bottomless pit of social workers willing to work for pennies and treated like dirt; without a change soon in social care and NHS there will not be any left and nobody seems to acknowledge how close we already are to that reality.
Barnet Council under Labour control for the 1st time ever resorts to using SCAB Labour to break a strike – something the Tories never did.
Barnet Labour need to get control of their officers and stop this nonsence, or Barnet Labour will forever be known as SCAB Labour.
Really a disgrace and reveals the deep hostility to organized labour in practice in the Labour Party that belies the recent promises of Starmer to the unions. We see this over and over again, not least in neighbouring Harringay ( another Labour council) with it’s intransigent attitude to the direct maintenance building workers.
I stand in unwavering solidarity with the mental health social workers of Barnet! Their fight for a safe working environment with zero waiting lists and fair pay is a fight for all of us.
The lack of support from the Barnet Labour Party is utterly disgusting and deeply disappointing. Barnet UNISON has tirelessly campaigned and supported your elections, only to be met with this betrayal. Shame on you!
As residents of this borough, many of us, myself included, rely on a robust mental health system. The current situation, fueled by council leadership and party inaction, puts that system at risk! This is unacceptable.
We need action, not apathy! Let’s raise our voices together and demand:
Safe working conditions for our mental health social workers.
Zero waiting lists for those desperately needing help.
Fair pay that reflects the vital service these workers provide.
We, the residents of Barnet, deserve better. We deserve a council and a Labour Party that prioritizes the well-being of its most vulnerable citizens. Let’s hold them accountable!
A Labour Council is hiring agency workers to try and break the strike in stead of listening to the mental health social workers professional concerns. I just want my area to have better mental health services which is currently unsafe with waiting lists and resources
SHAME ON YOU Barnet Council