Staff at homelessness charity St Mungo’s have launched a month-long strike following a dispute over pay.
Members of trade union Unite will mount picket lines outside offices in London, Brighton, Bristol, and Oxford as part of strike action that is due to last for 28 days, ending on 26 June.
The union said workers were “taking a stand” over a 2.25% pay-rise offer; St Mungo’s said it cannot afford to meet the union’s demands.
The dispute relates to pay for the last financial year, 2021/22.
St Mungo’s says it has already applied a rise of 1.75% to salaries in that year, but that the union has called for a backdated and consolidated rise of 10%.
It says meeting the request for the last and current financial year would cost £9.7m and leave it not “financially viable”.
‘Unprecedented and disproportionate’
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 10% 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.”
She added: “My door remains open to Unite, every day during the strike.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Charity workers who should be on the streets helping the homeless have reached breaking point.
“Instead of seizing the initiative to end the dispute, management’s decision to offer a pitiful 2.25% has spectacularly backfired.”
Image credit: Ms Jane Campbell/Shutterstock
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