The union is threatening court action over the council’s plan to cover the social care strike

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A union has threatened legal action over a council’s plan to bring 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 chief executive John Hooton saying the planned move is an illegal “strike breach” and urging the authority to stand down or risk court action.

However, the council argued that its action was both legal and necessary to enable it to manage risk and fulfill its statutory duties during strike action by around 20 staff across its mental health teams in the north and south and its service endorsed by mental health professionals (AMHP). .

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.

“These are (London Borough of Barnet (LBB)) functions and we assume LBB will remain responsible for their delivery. Therefore, it is not the case that LBB outsources a service; rather, they purchase workers to provide exactly the services normally provided by their own workers during a strike period.

“Therefore, if LBB were to obtain strike cover as described in this letter, which would be the procurement of services for an employment business, Regulation 7 of the Regulations would be breached and an offense under the Act would be committed employment agencies since 1973.”

Legal threat

Although any such offenses are committed by the employment agency concerned, UNISON said the authority itself can thus be guilty of offenses related to encouraging others to commit an offence.

The union urged Hooton to confirm in writing by May 28 that the authority would not seek to procure outside workers to provide cover for striking employees, adding that it reserved “the right to notify the relevant authorities of any possible criminal offenses and, also to ask for help. through the courts, including injunctive measures through judicial review proceedings, if you do not provide the requested confirmations and agreements by May 28, 2024”.

“We act in accordance with the law” – council

However, in response, a council spokesman said: “We are acting in accordance with the law to ensure we can keep residents safe and meet our statutory responsibilities through strike action.

“We are now at the point where industrial action has significantly reduced our ability to respond to residents’ requests for mental health support. This outsourced service will be urgently needed to manage risk and enable the council to respond effectively to urgent referrals within a reasonable timeframe during an extended nine-week UNISON lockout. This service is legal and would provide a minimum level of coverage to ensure we meet our statutory responsibilities.”

What does the union demand?

The union is calling for staff across the three mental health teams to receive a 10% recruitment and retention payment on top of their salary to deal with what it describes as a “staff exodus”, with 25 social workers who would be left the teams along the course. of 22 months, including currently planned departures.

This is a drop from his original payment request of 20%.

However, the council rejected the premise that there were recruitment and retention issues specific to the three teams and instead offered a 5% pay-out to all social workers, occupational therapists and senior practitioners in adult social care – around 200 staff. According to UNISON, the council has admitted that this is more expensive than the union claims.

“A justified and fair offer”

However, the council spokesman added: “UNISON’s claim for a 10% recruitment and retention payment for just three out of six teams of mental health workers is not justified under council policy. We have made a justified and fair offer of 5% to all social care staff and this offer is still open.

“If UNISON suspends strike action, then we are more than willing to continue to sit at the negotiating table, including discussing the minimum levels of services needed to keep residents safe.”

UNISON branch secretary John Burgess said it was “deeply disappointing that we are where we are”.

“I’m still hopeful that someone in a leadership position on Barnet Council will approach UNISON to meet us halfway to end the row and try to restore stability within mental health social care teams,” he added.