Fresh strike by Haringey's housing repair workers as dispute with council continues

Members of Unite are unhappy with changes to their terms and conditions and a pay offer they say represents a real-terms cut, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Housing repair workers with the Unite union stage a protest in Tottenham (credit Grace Howarth/LDRS) — Housing repair workers with the Unite union stage a protest in Tottenham this week (credit Grace Howarth/LDRS)

A new wave of strikes are hitting Haringey as housing repair workers stage a walkout over pay.

Members of the Unite trade union and Haringey Council have failed to reach an agreement, leading to another round of industrial action this week.

A protest on Monday (29th April) took place near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while the strikes are continuing until the end of today (Thursday 2nd).

Simon McCartney, Unite’s regional officer, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “My main message [to the council] would be to drop the preconditions and start negotiating.”

Simon claimed the council was looking to “demarcate” skilled crafts people under a proposed change of pay and conditions. He said the council wanted to move workers from a ‘red book’ to a ‘green book’ agreement, which would “not provide appropriate grading for craftspeople”.

He said the green book pay and conditions covered “office staff and teaching assistants” and a move like this would “take away titles and de-skill members” and potentially “ limit earnings”.

The council says it is willing to negotiate to reach a “fair and acceptable solution”.

But Simon said when Unite members met with the council a few weeks ago the council had “put pre-conditions to any discussions”.

He said: “We’d have to abandon our red book terms and conditions and that’s then resulted in us taking a further four days of industrial action.

“I’ve offered to clear my diary and offered to enter into a period of intensive negotiations with the employer [the council].

“Our only request was that they abandon this claim for green book terms and conditions, it’s such a massive change, we said if you remove this precondition of green book then we’ll postpone our industrial action and we’ll sit and talk to you on the basis of redbook, and they refused.”

In response a council spokesperson said the local authority was “open to a genuine and constructive negotiation”.

They said: “We have made an offer and have made it clear we are willing to negotiate to reach a fair and acceptable solution. We are at the table and are ready and willing to discuss further, but we won’t do this whilst our workers are striking.”

Further issues workers are protesting against include a flat-rate pay offer of an extra £1,925 per year.

Simon explained the offer was below the rate of inflation and amounted to a “real terms pay cut”. He stated other councils were “poaching” staff from Haringey due to offering “higher salaries”.

A refusal to increase annual leave for housing maintenance workers to match the increase to council staff’s annual leave was another issue.

Simon asserted that workers didn’t like to have to take industrial action but felt it was the last option.

The council spokesperson said the council was “extremely disappointed” that Unite and its members were continuing to take strike action “rather than enter into further talks”.

They added: “The council has taken steps to improve the delivery of our housing repairs as part of a major transformation programme to give our residents the high level of service they deserve, and this offer is part of that process.

“Throughout all of this our primary focus has to be our tenants and leaseholders and despite the strike action taking place, we will continue to provide a full repairs service.”

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