Harrogate Borough Council has defended its decision not to transfer some staff to the new North Yorkshire Council.

Five audit services staff recently discovered they would transfer to Veritau, a shared service group owned by local authorities in Yorkshire and north-east England.

Public services union Unison said on Tuesday it was “dismayed” by the decision, which it said came after more than a year of talks in which it was expected all staff would transfer to the new super-council under TUPE terms.

Unison Harrogate branch secretary Dave Houlgate said it had raised a dispute and called on Harrogate Borough Council to “stand by its staff and resist this late change”, adding:

“We object in the strongest terms to this late change of plan which shows total disregard for the staff involved, denies them the opportunity to move on to new terms and conditions negotiated and agreed by Unison and ignores established procedures and protocols that are in place.”

A council spokesperson said today:

“Engagement with staff, and consultation with trade unions, has taken place at every stage of the transition to North Yorkshire Council. This will continue, ensuring staff are kept informed of progress and have the opportunity to raise concerns. All staff also continue to be offered support.

“The audit service for the new council will be provided by Veritau, a company created in 2009 by North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council. Veritau has provided audit and other specialist services to the authorities, as well as other organisations, for many years. Providing income that will continue for the new council. Veritau already provides services to five of the seven district and borough councils that will be replaced by North Yorkshire Council.

“It is proposed staff currently providing the service in Harrogate will move to Veritau on April 1. Employment protection ensures that they will transfer on their existing terms and conditions. Individuals will have the option of choosing Veritau’s terms and conditions, should they wish to do so.”

Read more:

• Unison raises dispute with Harrogate council after five staff told they won’t transfer to new council
• First ever nurses’ strike begins at Harrogate hospital

A trade union has opened a dispute with Harrogate Borough Council after five staff at the local authority were told they will not transfer to the new North Yorkshire Council after all.

Harrogate Borough Council will be abolished on April 1 and it was thought all staff except chief executive Wallace Sampson would transfer to the successor authority under TUPE terms.

But Unison said it was “dismayed” to discover five audit services staff had recently discovered they would transfer to Veritau, a shared service group owned by local authorities in Yorkshire and north-east England.

Unison Harrogate branch secretary Dave Houlgate said the staff would switch to Veritau on “detrimental” terms to those who will transfer to North Yorkshire Council.

Mr Houlgate said:

“Staff and Unison have engaged with the TUPE process for well over a year now and our expectation and the expectation of all staff is that they will transfer to the new North Yorkshire Council on April 1 on their existing terms and conditions but with the opportunity to move on to new terms and conditions at the new council, which Unison has negotiated.

“It would seem, however, that the current county council has decided at this very late stage it does not want Harrogate Borough Council staff who work in the area associated with audit services to transfer to the new council but instead has decided that they should transfer to a separate company, Veritau.  Unison opposes this move.”

Our #Harrogate branch has lodged a formal dispute with Harrogate Borough Council after it emerges not all staff will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the new #NorthYorkshire council when the councils come together on 1 April#LocalGov @unisonyh https://t.co/gQt7z5SHxJ

— North Yorkshire UNISON (@NYUnison) January 16, 2023

Mr Houlgate said the option of staff not being offered the chance to TUPE to North Yorkshire Council “has never been on the agenda, even though we had raised it as a concern early in the process” and the union was “dismayed by this development”.

He said although North Yorkshire County Council and Veritau wanted staff to transfer directly to Veritau, it was ultimately Harrogate Borough Council’s decision.

“We object in the strongest terms to this late change of plan which shows total disregard for the staff involved, denies them the opportunity to move on to new terms and conditions negotiated and agreed by Unison and ignores established procedures and protocols that are in place.

“Staff in audit services at Harrogate should, as they expect to do, transfer to the new authority and then if there is a need to review how audit services are delivered for the new council then the proper processes should be followed after the transfer.

“Our expectation was that Harrogate Borough Council would stand by its staff and should resist this late change rather than give it the ‘green light’. Our dispute is intended to ensure this happens.”

The Stray Ferret has approached Harrogate Borough Council for comment.

Read more:

• Nurses at Harrogate hospital set for first strike
• Ambulance workers form picket line in Harrogate today

Knitted poppies will be put on Knaresborough castle on Friday as the town prepares for Remembrance Sunday.

Decorating the castle with poppies has become an annual occurrence since it was first done to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice.

Brenda Pitchfork, a member of the town’s branch of the Royal British Legion, has been at the forefront of efforts.

Ms Pitchfork’s work was recognised recently when she received Knaresborough Town Council‘s 2022 community award on behalf of the Legion from outgoing town mayor Christine Willoughby.

The Knaresborough branch of Royal British Legion with their community award.

This year’s Poppy Appeal will begin in the town on Monday and there will be a fundraising stall at Knaresborough market on November 2.

David Houlgate, vice-chair of the Knaresborough branch of the Royal British Legion, said this year’s appeal aimed to exceed the £31,000 raised last year.

Volunteer collectors are still needed for the three main collection points at Lidl, Aldi and M&S Food.  If you can help, call 07984700429.

Read more:

• Knitted poppies start to be put up around Harrogate’s war memorial
• Firefighters put up poppies as Ripon prepares for services of Remembrance

Harrogate Borough Council has spent £408,000 on overtime for bin workers over the last three years.

The Stray Ferret sent a freedom of information request to the council after a refuse collector got in touch to express concerns about overtime spending.

The council spent £138,246 on overtime in 2019, £135,636 in 2020 and £134,196 in 2021. The figures do not include casual workers.

The council, which will be abolished in just under six months, employed 93 waste and recycling drivers and loaders in 2020, compared with 95 in 2021 and 100 in 2020.

David Houlgate, secretary of the Harrogate local government branch of public sector union Unison, said the council had been “in a recruitment and retention crisis for some time”, adding:

“There are a number of factors for this crisis but primary it is, in our view, because of pay freezes and below inflation pay rises for over a decade or more as a result of chronic under-funding from central government who do not appear to care about public services.

“Consequently, some services such as environmental services have endured staffing issues for a number of years.  Your readers may have noticed on some occasions that their refuse or recycling collection has been late or not happened at all, as a result.

“Staff may have been asked to work overtime to alleviate the problem but more concerning is that there has been an over-reliance on agency workers to deliver some services.”

Mr Houlgate said Unison submitted a freedom of information request around the costs of agency workers in 2019 and later wrote to the council’s overview and scrutiny commission asking it to look into the “excessive” sums.

The committee agreed to undertake a review but this was delayed by covid and in July this year Unison was informed it was “unlikely that the agency workers piece of work will be undertaken”. Mr Houlgate said:

“The staffing situation has arisen because council staff have been underpaid and undervalued for well over a decade and the situation now with the cost of living crisis has reached a breaking point.”

Read more:

• Councillors vote to defer decision on 53 homes in Bilton
• Flaxby Park appeals decision to refuse 350 ‘eco lodges’ near A1

The Stray Ferret asked the council what the overtime pay rate is for waste and recycling staff and whether it was able to manage the service better to reduce costs.

A council spokesperson said he didn’t have an answer for the pay rate but added:

“Our waste and recycling service has around 30 rounds out per day collecting household waste, recycling, garden waste and trade waste from the 500 square miles of the Harrogate district.

“There are a number of reasons why overtime is required to support the delivery of this service.

“On a day-to-day basis this could range from roadworks, delays or breakdowns leading to rounds finishing late and employees working over their contracted hours. Short or longer term driver and staff shortages also require additional time to be worked by employees to ensure the delivery of this service.

“It is fair and right that additional time worked by employees over contracted hours – that equates to less than five per cent of the overall delivery of the service – is paid at the appropriate rate in-line with our overtime policy. Equally, where hours are worked on bank holidays to ensure rounds are completed, overtime is rightly paid to employees.

“Without the good will and support from staff to work these additional hours we would struggle to deliver the existing quality of service that our residents and business customers expect to receive.”

Harrogate Borough Council staff should receive a minimum £2,000 salary increase, according to trade unions.

Unison, GMB and Unite today formally lodged the 2022/23 pay claim for local government workers.

The claim also called for a covid recognition payment, a national minimum agreement on homeworking policies for all councils, the introduction of a home working allowance and a reduction in the working week to 35 hours.

It is the start of a negotiation process with the Local Government Association, the national membership body for local authorities. The claim is for all council workers in England and Wales.

David Houlgate, secretary of the Harrogate local government branch of Unison, said council employees had seen their pay reduced by 27% in real terms over the last decade.

He added:

“Councils can’t get staff and they can’t keep staff because of pay. They need to wake up and smell the coffee.

“It is impacting services, such as swimming pools being open for reduced hours, bins not being collected as often, streets not being cleaned and streetlights not being fixed.

“I’ve worked for the local council for 25 years and I’ve never known it to be as bad as this.”

Read more:

• Woodfield school closure ‘an absolute disgrace’, says union
• North Yorkshire fire service ‘struggling to buy the basics’, says union

Mr Houlgate said staff morale was poor and the looming abolition of Harrogate Borough Council had created extra uncertainty but the key issue was pay and recruitment. He added:

“If local councils can’t be competitive with other employers we are not going to overcome the recruitment problem.”

Responding to the unions’ claims, Cllr Sian Timoney, chair of the National Employers at the Local Government Association, said:

“We will be consulting with councils during June to seek their views which will inform the National Employers’ response to the unions.

“Local government continues to face significant financial challenges, which became more acute during the pandemic, having lost more than £15 billion in government funding since 2010.

“As well as rising inflation, cost of living, energy and fuel prices, the forecast increases to the National Living Wage also presents a significant cost to local government that will put further pressure on council budgets.”

The prospect of Harrogate Borough Council staff going on strike over pay has been removed after a national ballot.

Trade union Unison balloted members over whether or not to take industrial action after members rejected a 1.75% pay increase last year.

The offer followed a national consultation from the Local Government Association over a pay increase.

Of 62% of Unison members in the Harrogate district, 74% voted to refuse the pay offer.

However, a national ballot held last month on whether to take strike action over the offer saw just 14.5% of Unison members turn out to vote.

Read more:

• Unison Harrogate rejects ‘derisory’ council staff pay offer
• Brimhams Active defends its stance on £8,000 increase for use of Ripon pool

Under government trade union laws, strike action cannot legally progress unless there is at least a 50% turnout for the ballot and the majority votes to strike. Because the national turnout was just 14.5%, the strike will not therefore take place.

David Houlgate, secretary of the Harrogate branch of Unison, said the proposed 1.75% pay offer would only increase pressure on frontline council services.

He said:

“While an overwhelming majority of those who voted were prepared to show their anger at the employers’ derisory 1.75% pay offer by taking strike action, they are prevented from doing so because the number of votes cast in the ballot is less than 50% of the number entitled to vote in the ballot.

“With inflation predicted to hit 6% this year, this amounts to another real terms pay cut for council workers across the country and will increase the pressure on frontline services, already struggling with a huge number of vacancies and losing employees at an alarming rate.”

Council staff ‘deeply unhappy’ over pay

Unison and other trade unions have said they will now look towards next year’s pay offer.

Mike Short, head of local government at Unison, said:

“The results show there’s deep unhappiness among council and education staff about a pay offer so far below the ​spiralling cost of living.

“There’s a real danger ​local authorities and schools will now lose staff to employers willing ​and able to g​rant above-inflation wage rises. Leading supermarkets, hospitality outlets and ​other private sector firms ​have either made, or are ​considering, pay increases allowing workers to keep on top of ​rocketing bills.

“Unison will consider ​its next steps and liaise with ​other unions when the​ir ballots are complete.”

Staff have made allegations of bullying, harassment and undermining at Harrogate Borough Council.

As part of an ongoing review into pay at the authority, some staff responded to a survey with claims that their bosses “work together to threaten” and “get what they want” from more junior colleagues.

One member of staff said in a report that the council “bullies and harasses its staff regularly,” adding:

“I have been on the receiving end of this – the lies, being made to feel incompetent, being bullied and harassed on returning to work.

“Harrogate Borough Council needs to take a long hard look at itself.”

Reacting to the allegations, David Houlgate, secretary of the trade union Unison Harrogate, which represents council workers, said the claims were “not a surprise”. But he added he did not believe there was a “culture” of bullying at the authority:

“The council is a large employer with over 1,000 staff. It is sadly inevitable that bullying behaviour will and does occur.

“The council has policies and procedures to deal with these. When our members come to us with complaints we fully expect the council to engage with us and fully respond and resolve the issues being raised.

“If we feel this is not happening, then we do involve our legal representatives but this does not happen very often.”

A spokesperson for the council said there had been two complaints of inappropriate behaviour and one grievance regarding bullying and harassment raised in 2021. These are currently under investigation.

In 2020, one grievance was raised regarding bullying and harassment with no further action taken at either stages one or two of the grievance procedure.

And in 2019, one complaint of bullying and harassment was investigated and an appropriate level of warning issued.

The spokesperson said: “Sadly, at some time or another, all employers will have to deal with bullying and/or harassment in their workplace.

“It is something we will not stand for and any incident is dealt with in accordance our behaviour policy. Thankfully, these reports are very few and far between.

“It is encouraging to see that the Local Government Association agree that our new pay and grading structure is consistent with the national position.”

Read more:

• Senior staff could get pay rises totalling around £133,000
• Is Harrogate’s rewilding experiment increasing hay fever?
• ‘Extremely urgent’ action required to tackle NHS dentist shortage

The allegations were made as part of a review into pay, which could see 17 of the council’s most senior staff next month get pay rises totalling around £133,000 between them.

Meanwhile, mainstream workers, who had their pay structure reviewed more recently two years ago, are currently in negotiations for a further rise.

This is after a study concluded the recruitment and retention of staff was challenging and that pay was a factor.

Out of the 553 employees who responded to the survey held in August, over 80% gave pay as one of the main reasons why they would consider quitting their jobs.

Mr Houlgate said staff have been offered a “derisory” 1.5% pay rise this year – an increase which he believes does not go far enough to recognise them as the “unsung heroes” of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Unison has been clear for a long time that levels of pay for council staff has been a major contributory factor in relation to recruitment and retention issues.

“We have seen a decade of staff being overworked and undervalued whilst enduring significant real term pay cuts, redundancies and increased workloads.

“The council now seems to be waking up to this and says it is putting things in place to tackle these issues but we have real concerns about the timeframe it has set and whether it will deliver on these.

“This needs to happen now otherwise people will leave.”

As well as the bullying and harassment allegations, and complaints over pay, several staff also responded to the survey with positive comments about working at the council.

Positive comments from the survey

• “The fact that the council offers a free mental health service is a great benefit to the whole council.”

• “I really have no intention to leave at the moment because I enjoy my job. It offers challenge, variety, flexibility etc.”
• “The council is a great place to work, however the pay is not competitive with other local authorities.”

• “I have really enjoyed working for Harrogate Borough Council and have been able to progress and work flexibly.”

Negative comments from the survey

• “Harrogate Borough Council bullies and harasses its staff regularly. HR and managers, including directors work together to threaten, undermine and bully the staff to get what they want. I have been on the receiving end of this, the lies, being made to feel incompetent, being bullied and harassed on returning to work.”

• “Employees over 50 aren’t valued. I have heard more than one manager say that employees over 50 are ‘a threat to the organisation’.”
• “I feel Harrogate Borough Council is lagging behind other authorities in its pay levels and it impacts on our ability to recruit and keep good staff.”
• “The council acts as though they care but it is clear they do not and also they do not have staff trained to offer support when it is requested hence my response to the council not caring about health and wellbeing – it is all lip service and rather patronising when we have real work to do and deadlines.”
• “Some managers do not care about feelings or wellbeing which makes a complete mockery of the council.

• “There is very little in the way of career progression at Harrogate Borough Council – it is very much ‘dead men’s shoes’.”

Do you have experience of bullying at the council? Write to us at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

The trade union Unison has expressed concerns that some Harrogate Borough Council may have to use public toilets during office hours.

Knaresborough Tourist Information Centre is currently located in the town’s library.

But it is due to move to the Courthouse Museum, in the grounds Knaresborough Castle, in June.

Unison is concerned the museum does not have adequate on-site toilet facilities, forcing staff to use public toilets on Cheapside.

David Houlgate, Unison Harrogate branch secretary, said:

“We understand that for very many years staff at the courthouse museum have been expected to use the public toilets near to Cheapside.  Of course this was never really acceptable but now with the Tourist Information Centre re-locating there will be more staff, probably longer opening hours and increased footfall.

“Whilst public toilets are OK if people are caught short when out and about in the town they are not suitable to be the designated toilets for staff working in an indoor environment promoting the town and wider district.

“There is also no guarantee that they will be open when needed.”

Read more:

• Unison has lodged a formal dispute with Harrogate Borough Council over the cost of staff working from home. 
• A former, senior council officer was paid £55,000 after leaving suddenly.

Mr Houlgate said if the council could not provide toilets, it should make an arrangement with a nearby organisation to allow council staff to use their toilets.

He added these concerns were put to the council when the move was first discussed in 2019 but they hadn’t been addressed. He also questioned what consultation had taken place.

The move to the museum was delayed due to the pandemic but is now scheduled to take place in June.

Disabled access also a concern

Unison also raised concerns about the tourist information centre’s disabled access. Mr Houlgate said:

“Whilst there is some provision to get in and out of the Courthouse, the nature of the building may restrict access within which is not ideal and may even be discriminatory.”

The union has asked the council if there has been an equality impact assessment in relation to the move.

Harrogate Borough Council has been contacted for a response.