Staff at Glasgow East Women's Aid to strike amid bullying claims

They provide support to women and children in Easterhouse experiencing domestic abuse.

Author: Callum McQuadePublished 15th Nov 2023

Staff at Glasgow East Women's Aid have voted to strike amid allegations of bullying, a mass staff suspension and the dismissal of five workers.

Unite the union is claiming all of its members working there are backing industrial action.

Sharon Graham Unite general secretary, said: “Unite will not tolerate any of our members at Glasgow East Women’s Aid being targeted and dismissed due to raising legitimate concerns about their workplace.

"These dismissals shockingly took place during an industrial action ballot, and there is no doubt this move was designed to undermine the ballot process.”

“Unite has launched unfair dismissal claims on behalf of our five members.

"Be in no doubt we will be holding the organisation’s management to account for its disgraceful behaviour and potentially illegal attitude to its staff.”

The workers provide services for women and children experiencing domestic abuse in greater Easterhouse.

A spokesperson for the management at Glasgow East Women's Aid said: "We have had on going issues with Unite regarding publication that our service is closed and has been for 8-weeks.

"As we and our legal advisers have repeatedly told Unite, this is wholly untrue and does nothing other than deter victims of domestic abuse from reaching out.

"Unite's irresponsible publication in this regard is directly damaging to service users and it is simply not true.

"If you or anyone you know is experiencing issues of abuse, please do not hesitate to contact Glasgow East Women’s Aid as we are still here to support our service users.

"The Board has made every possible effort to resolve issues and continue to support employees through external counselling, but employees are ignoring our attempts at resolution.

"We are now at a highly regrettable stage where we are trying to resolve matters with our employees, but they refuse to communicate with us directly.

"Therefore, we are at a loss as to how else we can resolve matters with these valuable workers."

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