Staff employed by housing and homeless charity Shelter have commenced two weeks of strike action today (Monday 5 December) in a dispute over pay.
More than 500 employees who are members of trade union Unite voted to strike following a 3% pay offer from the charity, which the union stated was lower than the inflation rate of 14.2%.
Negotiations that took place at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) last Thursday (1 December) did not result in an agreed upon solution. According to the union, the charity’s management proposed a 4% pay increase for 2023-24, with no further pay increase for staff until April 2024, which it did not accept.
Shelter’s offices affected by the strike action include its head office in Old Street, London, and others in Blackburn, Norwich, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Plymouth, Newcastle, Sheffield and Scotland.
Tim Gutteridge, director of finance and strategy enablement at Shelter, said: “Regrettably the cost-of-living crisis is impacting both our staff and operational costs, and we are doing everything we can to navigate these challenging economic times. Industrial action is not the outcome we wanted after months of talks with the union, but we fully respect people’s right to strike.
“Our ambition remains trying to support colleagues through this difficult period, while being able to deliver our frontline services and campaign work. This year we gave all staff a pay rise, which for non-management staff means an increase of between 8% and 12.3%, consisting of a 3% consolidated increase and a one-off payment of £1,500. Shelter is also implementing the Living Wage Foundation’s increase of 10.1% from December 2022, much earlier than required.”
Sharon Graham, general secretary at Unite, said: “Shelter has sufficient reserves to pay its hardworking and dedicated staff a decent pay rise, but it has chosen not to. Our members at Shelter will receive Unite’s complete and unyielding support in their fight for a better deal.”