Council to buy into service to cover social workers during 9 week strike

Photo: Markus Mainka/Fotolia

A council plans to buy supplies to cover mental health social workers during an ongoing nine-week strike over staffing levels in their teams.

Barnet Council said the move was necessary to keep residents safe and meet its statutory obligations during the departure of practitioners from its North and South Mental Health Teams and the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) service.

It also rejected claims by Barnet UNISON, which represents social workers, that it plans to engage in illegal strike-breaking.

Law on strike coverage

The Regulations prohibit employment agencies from providing workers to an organization to cover the duties of a striking employee or other employees covering for those on strike, as long as the industrial action is legitimate (regulation 7 of the Agency Conduct Regulations of employment and employment enterprises 2003).

However, the 2003 regulatory guidelines state that employers can cover the work of a striking worker by contracting out the service, which appears to be what Barnet Council intends to do.

Around 20 practitioners are currently involved in a nine-week strike which began last week and is set to run until July 12, after Barnet UNISON escalated its action last week.

Purchase in service “necessary to manage risk and perform duties”

A council spokesman said: “We are now at the point where industrial action has significantly reduced our ability to respond to residents’ requests for mental health support. With this in mind, we are looking to purchase services from an external supplier to ensure we can keep residents safe and meet our statutory responsibilities throughout the strike.

“This additional resource will be urgently needed to manage risk and enable the council to respond effectively to urgent referrals within a reasonable timeframe.

“This service is legal and would provide a minimum level of cover to ensure we meet our statutory responsibilities.”

Breach of strike claim

In response, Barnet UNISON said: “Barnet Council is using agency workers to perform roles that our members would be performing if they were not on strike. This is Barnet Council’s second attempt to use agency workers to break the strike. Instead of wasting money on agency employees, they should resolve this dispute.”

The union was referring to a similar plan by the council to cover the previous two-week strike by practitioners in April, which did not happen after the employing agency pulled out of the service. As is the case this time, the council said that plan was legal.

The trainees are striking to secure the recruitment and withholding payment of 10% of wages – a reduction from their original claim of 20% – to avoid what Barnet UNISON described as an “exodus” of staff from the three teams.

The union said that, including the planned departures, 25 mental health social workers will have left the service over 22 months. Although staff have been replaced, Barnet UNISON said that overall the level of mental health expertise of the teams has reduced.

The union and the council remain at odds

Both sides have said they are open to talks, including on ensuring minimum service levels during the strike. However, their positions remain distant, as demonstrated by the union’s decision to escalate the strike last week.

The council has increased its previous offer and is now proposing to offer recruitment and retention payments worth 5% of salary to 200 social workers, occupational therapists and senior practitioners in adult services. This is higher than an offer of £1,000 a year, or around 2.5% of salary on average, over two years.

The authority’s position is that recruitment and retention in social work is a national issue and there is “no evidence or justification to justify… payment exclusively to mental health social workers”, with the three teams having turnover rates in line with national average. .

Mental health social care competitive payments, council says

“We have reviewed the pay levels of other London boroughs and their recruitment and retention payments and we are confident that we pay well compared to other boroughs outside London,” the council spokesman added.

“Arrangements vary across London for the remuneration of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs), but even taking into account the recruitment and retention allowance in some boroughs, Barnet’s pay offer is very competitive.”

They said the extra 5% pay would put us in the top 40% of boroughs outside London for social worker salaries and is justified in line with our recruitment and retention policy.”

10% pay a “red line” for social workers

However, Barnet UNISON said 10% was a “red line” for mental health practitioners and the three teams faced a “recruitment and retention crisis” not seen in the rest of the adult social care department.

It also argued that the board could easily afford to settle the dispute given the scale of its offer to the wider staff pool.

In a statement last week, union secretary John Burgess said support for the strike remained strong.

“Overwhelming support” for attackers

“We know there is overwhelming support for our forwards,” he said. “This support is not limited to Barnet UNISON members, it is also found in the wider UNISON family. Messages of support are pouring in from across the UK, including thousands of pounds in donations to our strike fund.

“The response from the people of Barnet has been humbling, we have residents leaving food parcels, donations and messages of support.”