Action for Children staff balloted for strike action

Finance | Celina Ribeiro | 4 Oct 2011

Union members at Action for Children are considering strike action following an eight-month dispute over pay and what unions claim is an “attack on conditions”.

More than 1,000 members of staff at the charity who are either members of Unison or Unite are being balloted this month over whether to resort to strike action after the breakdown of long-running negotiations over working conditions and a pay freeze.

The unions are particularly concerned about the overall changes to working terms and conditions, with the charity reportedly reviewing changes to its redundancy policy that could see a drop in pay protection for staff redeployed to lower-paid roles. The pay freeze during a time of inflation is also a contentious issue.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: “Action for Children has refused to respond to our concerns over the past eight months. Industrial action is a last resort, but the only way to convince the charity that staff deserve a fair pay rise.”

Mike Robinson, Unite national officer for children’s charities, said that the charity is paying below standard rates. “Their pay is low, compared with the average support worker, with many earning on average £20,000 a year, and many domestic and admin staff are on between £11,000 and £18,000. Their pay is not keeping pace with inflation and that’s putting our members into further financial hardship.”

Action for Children: 'Difficult economic climate'

Action for Children, however, said that it valued its staff and was committed to negotiations.

“In common with all charities at this time, we are currently operating in a very difficult economic climate and need to be realistic about the challenges we face,” said the charity’s executive director of human resources, Richard Cove. “Our priority is to continue to deliver services for the most vulnerable children and young people we work with.

“We have been regularly meeting with union partners to try a reach a suitable solution for all parties. Whilst it is regrettable that they have felt it necessary to ballot for strike action at this difficult time, we remain committed to actively negotiating to reach the best possible outcome.”

Directory: Action for Children | UNISON

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.