Fighting for mental health in Barnet
Branch secretary of Barnet Unison JOHN BURGESS applauds the mental health social workers who today are beginning three weeks of strike action against low pay, unsafe workloads and poor retention
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“LESSON ONE, always insist the decision-maker is in the negotiations.” Unison first raised the chronic loss of experienced mental health social workers from front-line mental health social work teams 22 months ago.
Until Unison gave notice that it was about to ballot the members for strike action in July 2023, Barnet Council refused to accept there was a problem.
Suddenly the council said there was an issue with recruitment and retention, except it included 185 staff in the rest of adult social care, not just the 22 for whom we had submitted a claim.
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