Unite Press Release 

For immediate release: Wednesday 10 May 2023

Pitiful new pay offer fails to prevent month long strike at homeless Charity St Mungo’s

The month long strike will begin on 30 May and end on 26 June.

Bosses add insult to injury by increasing their 1.75% pay offer to a “pitiful” 2.25 %. The offer was roundly rejected by a margin of 91%.

A month long strike by workers at the homeless charity St Mungo’s will go ahead after workers unsurprisingly rejected a “pitiful” new pay offer averaging  just 2.25 % for a frontline worker.

The charity’s pay offer has backfired. Fury amongst the workforce is growing and now new members are joining Unite in droves. 

Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham said: “Charity workers who are on the streets helping the homeless are now prepared to go on strike for a month for a decent wage. This shows what they think of the way they’ve been treated by St Mungo’s management. The pitiful pay offer has just made everyone in the union angrier. 

“So if the management at St Mungo’s want to avoid a month long strike they have the answer in their own hands. Make Unite members a decent pay offer. Their indifference to the financial pressures facing their own staff is quite frankly astonishing.”

The homeless charity still hasn’t resolved a pay dispute going back to 2021 in the midst of falling pay and a cost of living crisis. 

Unite regional officer Steve O’Donnell said: “The workers are fed up with highly paid management at top of their homeless charity while at the bottom they struggle to make ends meet.

“Management’s behaviour is really backfiring. New members are joining in droves. The end result will be a stronger month long strike.

“The workers are at the end of their tether, they don’t want to be on strike but they can’t pay the bills. The bosses need to wake up to this reality so the charity can focus on the invaluable work it does for the homeless.” 

Since 2013, St Mungo’s chief executives have seen their average pay at the charity spiral by 77 per cent – up from £107,000 to more than £189,000 (according to the latest published accounts). St Mungo’s won’t reveal the salary of the newly appointed CEO, Emma Haddad. 

In the last ten years, the pay of senior management at St Mungo’s has increased by 350 per cent. In stark contrast, over a similar time frame, the real value of the wages of St Mungo’s workers, many of whom work on the streets helping the homeless, has plummeted by 25 per cent. A frontline worker earns around £26,000. 

Unite balloted over 500 workers across southern England including in London, Bristol, Brighton, Oxford, Bournemouth and Reading.

ENDS

For more information please contact: Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315 

Email: Ci[email protected]

Twitter: @unitetheunion Facebook: unitetheunion1 Web: unitetheunion.org 

Unite is the leading union in the UK and Ireland, dedicated to defending and improving members' jobs, pay and conditions. The general secretary is Sharon Graham