Brighton homeless charity staff walk out in pay dispute
Unite members at St Mungo's have called a proposed wage increase 'pitiful'
Last updated 30th May 2023
Workers at a homeless charity in Brighton are beginning a month-long strike on Tuesday (May 30th) as part of a pay dispute.
Those with Unite at St Mungo's have described a proposed pay offer of 2.25% as 'pitiful', claiming that charity workers are 'fed up with greed' while they themselves struggle to make ends meet.
The action is set to continue until Monday 26th June.
Unite members picketing in the city on Tuesday lunchtime in Surrey Street, just outside Brighton railway station.
The union has claimed that the dispute dates back to 2021 and that members of senior management at St Mungo's have seen their pay rise by 350% in the ten years, while the real value of their workers' wage has dropped by 25% in the same time frame.
Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham said:
"Charity workers who should be on the streets helping the homeless have reached breaking point. The workers are now taking a stand.
"Instead of seizing the initiative to end the dispute, management’s decision to offer a pitiful 2.25% has spectacularly backfired.
"Now St Mungo’s faces a month long strike and the workers have Unite’s total support. The pitiful pay offer has just made everyone in the union angrier.
“St Mungo’s have the answer in their own hands. Make Unite members a decent pay offer. Their indifference to the financial pressures facing their own staff is quite frankly astonishing.”
Unite balloted over 500 workers across southern England including in London, Bristol, Brighton, Oxford, Bournemouth and Reading.
Emma Haddad, chief executive of St Mungo’s, said:
"Our latest offer, combined with the annual pay rise proposed by the National Joint Council, would have meant a pay rise of at least ten per cent for those colleagues on the lowest salaries.
"This is what Unite has been asking for but voted against it.
"After all our efforts to find a solution to this dispute, a four-week strike is unprecedented and disproportionate.
"It will impact vulnerable people at risk of or recovering from homelessness.
"My door remains open to Unite every day during the strike."