St Mungo's workers to demonstrate as pay dispute continues
A row's brewing between a union and the charity over the use of agency workers to replace striking staff
A union's calling on a Bournemouth-based homelessness charity to stop 'wasting money' on hiring agency staff to circumvent a pay dispute.
Workers from St Mungo's are travelling to London to rally outside the cause's HQ in solidarity on Thursday (August 10th).
They continue to strike, weeks after members of the Unite union voted on walking out indefinitely in their dispute over pay.
During these strikes, Unite has recruited 350 new members.
One worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told us: "It took a really long time for management to come to the table and negotiate with us, which I found really frustrating.
"A lot of people joined us off the back of that.
"Last week, an offer was put on the table, and now I finally feel like we're being taken seriously, which can only be a good thing.
"Management are ultimately trying to run the charity in the best way, and what we want them to understand is that, among the best ways of doing that, there is good staff retention so we can do our jobs to the best of our ability."
As of today, hostile employers will be stopped from recruiting agency staff to undermine legal strike action.
Up to now, St Mungo’s have been using a number of agencies to try to break the strike, something which the union say has led to management staff 'tying themselves in knots' about, over 'a desperate attempt to transfer agency workers on to short term contracts' instead.
Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham said: “Companies and organisations had already begun to use agency workers as a way to break legal strikes. Pitting worker against worker in an attempt to union bust. As of 10 August, this will no longer be an avenue hostile employers can use.
“St Mungo’s now needs to focus on solving this long running dispute. They need to stop looking for ways to break the strike and start looking for ways to solve it.
“St Mungo's seems happy to increase rents and service charges by above inflation and to up their CEO’s £189,000 pay by five per cent, yet they refuse to treat workers fairly. Now is the time to do the right thing.'
'We are doing everything we can to work with Unite'
A St Mungo’s spokesperson said: “As St Mungo's is in the middle of negotiations with Unite the Union, we are not in a position to disclose the salaries of members of our senior executive team.
“We recognise the change in law regarding the use of agency staff to cover workers on strike and have plans in place to ensure we can support our clients when it comes into force.
“We have made a new offer aimed at resolving the pay dispute and we will be discussing the detail with Unite representatives over the coming days.
“We are doing everything we can to work with Unite, so together we can end this dispute at a time when the demand for our services is increasing. We need to ensure that the charity is sustainable, so that we can continue to deliver services to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities".