Barnet Council is considering plans that union leaders claim will mean more than 80% of its staff are outsourced.
The London borough has already moved out a third of its workforce as a result of its One Barnet transformation programme, according to Unison.
The latest plans affect staff in street scene, adult social care, education and catering, early years children’s services and libraries. If the proposals go ahead it will mean more than 2,800 staff will have been transferred and it will have a workforce of just 332, according to the union’s figures.
The numbers involved have yet to be confirmed by Barnet Council.
Union leaders have called a public meeting next week to ‘discuss the implications for our members and council services’, said John Burgess, Unison’s branch secretary for Barnet.
He said: ‘We have already been through massive changes with a third of the council staff outsourced under the One Barnet Programme. But this latest set of proposals is going to hit staff particularly hard and will have a detrimental effect on the ability of Barnet Council to recruit new staff.
‘If all of the above services are outsourced the council will have outsourced 2,878 staff leaving behind a small cohort of 332 staff. Our branch has unfortunately had to deal with a lot of outsourcing in the past two years and in almost all cases it has meant cuts and redundancies for the staff transferring and led to the emergence of a two- tier workforce.’
The proposals are due to be discussed by Barnet Council’s environment committee tonight and adult social care on Thursday.
