Workers at homeless charity St Mungo’s are preparing to launch a month-long strike citing a dispute over pay.
Employees represented by the trade union Unite will establish picket lines outside St Mungo’s offices in London, Brighton, Bristol, and Oxford.
The union claims the workers are taking a stand due to a meager pay increase offer of 2.25 percent.
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St Mungo’s argues it cannot afford to meet Unite’s demands and characterizes the strike as “unprecedented and disproportionate.”
The conflict centres on pay for the previous fiscal year, 2021/22.
The charity has already implemented a 1.75 percent salary increase during that period.
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Unite has requested a retrospective and consolidated raise of 10 percent.
St Mungo’s says meeting the union’s demands for both the past and current financial years would amount to a total cost of £9.7 million, rendering the organization financially unviable.
According to St Mungo’s, all eligible staff members have already received an average pay rise of 5.5 percent for the financial year 2022/23, with some also receiving an additional £700 payment to address living costs.
Unite’s General Secretary, Sharon Graham, said charity workers who should be assisting the homeless have reached a breaking point.
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She criticized management’s offer of a meager 2.25 percent raise, stating that it has backfired significantly.
She 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.”
The strike action is scheduled to commence on Tuesday and continue for 28 days, concluding on June 26.
St Mungo’s CEO, Emma Haddad, acknowledged the offers made by the charity thus far constitute a minimum 10 percent increase for employees on the lowest salaries.
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She noted that Unite had requested this figure but subsequently voted against it.
Haddad described the four-week strike as unprecedented and disproportionate but affirmed that her door remains open to Unite throughout the strike period.
