Care home staff stage 24-hour benefits strike

1:25pm Friday 6th July 2007

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Care home staff across the borough held a 24-hour strike on Thursday in protest at contract changes introduced by the Fremantle Trust, which runs residential homes and day services in Barnet.

Emergency staffing arrangements were made by the trust to ensure services to elderly and vulnerable people at the homes were not affected when workers walked out at noon.

A row between the trust and trade union, Unison, broke out after Fremantle took control of Barnet Council's care home services in 1999.

Workers employed by the council had their contracts transferred to Fremantle, with the assurance that their salaries and benefits would remain intact.

But in July last year, the trust revealed its intention to sack all staff members and re-employ them with lower salaries, increase the working week by ten per cent, and cut back on annual leave.

Workers claimed they would have to quit their jobs, potentially putting the welfare of residents in jeopardy.

Staff have been working under the new contracts since April 1, and Carole Sawyers, chief executive of Fremantle, said only six people chose not to accept the new terms and conditions.

But Eddy Coulson, Unison regional organiser, said: "The six people who did not sign were sacked. We had to advise members to sign, or else they would also have been sacked.

"We were rail-roaded into it. The mood is really grim; people are annoyed.

"I have asked on two occasions to meet Fremantle to get some of the cuts lifted, but they will not increase the funding."

He called on the council to terminate its contract with the trust and bring the service back in-house.

Ms Sawyers added: "We are disappointed that staff have decided to take this action. We spent a year consulting and negotiating with the staff concerned and their unions.

"Everyone involved understood we had to make services financially viable, and that if we did not make changes to terms it could have led to closures of homes, or even the collapse of the service."

She said the new agreements were based on basic pay being frozen for three years, holiday entitlement being cut from 39 days to 29, and the reduction of sick pay arrangements to bring Barnet into line with the trust's national standard of three months on full pay.