Comment: Haringey Housing Department Strike
Housing maintenance and repair workers have gone on a continuous strike in Haringey today, with action based on the following key points:
- Haringey housing repairs service is failing badly on its key performance measures due to a failure of management
- The ongoing dispute with workers about their treatment and pay and conditions could be easily solved with meaningful negotiations
- The council is wasting a huge amount of resources on poor quality sub-contractors and agency workers, who are potentially being used to break Unite’s strikes
- Management is not taking staff and resident safety seriously.
This comes on the back of several scathing reports released last year on the state of the service, including the Housing Ombudsman criticising “a culture of apathy and acceptance of poor practice”; “unreasonable delays in the landlord’s response to reports of disrepair”; and “clear evidence of service failure”; the Social Housing Regulator revealing the council “put thousands of tenants at potential risk by failing to meet health and safety requirements for fire and electrical safety”; and the council’s own data showing tenant satisfaction under 50% and leaseholder satisfaction below 20%.
Sharon Graham, the Secretary General of Unite, said “This is a Labour run council behaving like Tories in disguise. It has decimated housing services and is now determined to treat our members – their key workers – with utter disdain. They need to know that Unite won’t stand for it and our members have the full backing of their union in this dispute.”
In response to the strike, Cllr Dawn Barnes (LD-Fortis Green), Opposition Spokesperson for Housing, said:
“This strike action can come as no surprise in Haringey’s failing housing repairs department. The council’s internal culture consistently prioritises so-called ‘reputational damage’ over its duties to residents, and it is clear from this strike that many staff share concerns about the organisation’s priorities.”
“Tenants and leaseholders are being failed, with repairs left outstanding and no communication from the council. Haringey must get the repairs service in order, up to a standard tenants and officers deserve: and that first means resolving this industrial action as a matter of urgency before conditions for residents worsen even further.”