Charity News Alert
Shelter staff to vote on industrial action over pay
Gareth Jones
Homelessness charity Shelter is facing the possibility of industrial action after union members voted to reject proposals to change staff pay and working conditions.
Employees represented by the TGWU/Unite trade union are unhappy with changes to pay structures and working conditions, with 87 per cent of those taking part in a vote favouring a ballot on industrial action.
Just over half of the around 40 per cent of Shelter’s 811 staff that are members of the union took part in the vote, meaning the proposals were rejected by nearly a fifth of the charity’s employees.
The proposals were first announced in May last year, since when it is claimed there has been a “huge” increase in union membership.
Among the contentious issues are the extension of the working week from 35 to 37.5 hours, the removal of pay increments worth around £2,500 over three years and changes to working practices, which unions fear would lead to duplication of effort.
However, Shelter has denied claims that one-third of frontline advisers will have their salaries reduced by £3,000. It called the figures neither “accurate nor correct” and said that while there may be pay adjustments for some staff their salaries would be protected for two years.
Shelter said the changes were essential in order for it to compete for funds, particularly when dealing with the Legal Services Commission (LSC), from which it currently receives more than £3m a year.
“The LSC has changed the way it awards contracts and at present Shelter is no longer competitive due to high staff costs and inappropriate working hours,” a spokesman said.
“To ensure we win the LSC contracts we must submit compelling and competitive bids. Over the past ten months we have looked very hard at our services and taken some difficult decisions.”
He added that if the proposals were blocked then the charity would lose up to 200 staff, as opposed to just seven. “The scale of change is challenging and some aspects of it are not surprisingly very unpopular with staff. However, it is a model designed by service staff and managers together, and is a model used successfully in many other organisations.
“At the moment our annual salary bill is rising by £1m a year. Something has to be done about this and we have decided we need to save money by stopping increments, which will bring us in line with most other charities. The annual cost of living increase remains.”
Shelter’s spokesman said it had recently lost contracts because its costs were too high and it did not offer enough working hours to meet those contracts.
“For example, agencies ask for 1,400 contact hours but on a 35-hour week we can only offer 1,300, so therefore we lose the contract for not being competitive enough. Also, if we lose LSC and Government contracts that in turn damages our ability to provide all our services.”
The union members will now hold another vote to decide whether to take industrial action against the proposals. Shelter did not know when this vote would take place.
