St Mungos update
Unite in St Mungos
While the need for homelessness services continues to rise, the management in some of the providers have been acting like commercial organisations seeking to cuts costs by driving down the pay and conditions of hard pressed front line staff.
In 2014/15, Unite members at St Mungos Broadway a stunning victory in a battle to defend the service from senior management cuts.
Unite members at St Mungos Broadway (from the Unite Housing Workers Branch) had taken seven days of strike action in defence of their housing association, staff terms and conditions, and union rights, all of which have come under a sudden and vicious attack following a merger. Over 95% of respondents voted to take strike action on a turnout of almost 70%. Read more about the strike here.
The squeeze often hits the service for some of the most vulnerable in society.
St Mungos now
Unite is in dispute with St Mungo’s over 10 key issues related to senior management’s attempts to get rid of an agreement and reinstate ‘race to the bottom’ terms and conditions.
St Mungo’s isn’t listening:
- It wants to rip up the five year old junior staffing cap agreement;
- It’s sticking with an unfair sickness policy –a policy which effectively punishes staff for being sick;
- It’s refusing to take action to curb the draconian use of discipline, despite Helen Gilles admitting there’s a problem;
- It has reduced annual leave for a significant number of members;
- It’s refusing to back down on plans to make all staff sign ‘declaration of interest’ forms, regardless of whether they have anything to declare.
For a full briefing of all ten issues please read the Unite in St Mungo's newsletter Feb. 2019. For Unite's position on the junior staffing cap plans please read this bulletin.
Your union now needs you to be vote ready to defend your T&Cs.
Strike action is always a last resort. We will only ever trigger a ballot when all avenues of negotiation have been exhausted. And with senior management refusing to budge, we need to be ready.
Help us show senior management how serious you take their attack on your T&Cs.
Send a message@
Please use the form here to tell Robert Napier, chair of the St Mungo’s board why you would vote ‘yes’ for strike action if you had to. Your details will be kept completely confidential. Unite will compile your messages and send them to Mr Napier, anonymously.