UNISON Barnet branch has released a satirical video attacking the council’s controversial privatisation of its services.
The council’s One Barnet initiative has seen it outsource 33 of its services, not least to the private company Capita, which has won two multi-million pound contracts.
As a result, many of the branch’s 3,000 members have been transferred to other public bodies or to the private sector. Transfer has meant a significant change to terms and conditions and, in the case of Capita, 130 redundancies. In March the council removed facility time funding.
A Tale of Bob in Barnet, launched today and available on YouTube, features a series of cartoons accompanied by a song, in which a councillor finds himself living “in a working man’s shoes”, wandering the streets of Barnet to find libraries and day centres closed, while at work he is first redeployed, then made redundant.
