News

Union derecognition prompts industrial dispute at Anchor

Finance | 28 Oct 2008

A housing association which provides accommodation for older people is being taken to workplace arbitration after it derecognised a union which claims to represent up to 17 per cent of its workforce.

Unite the union is collecting signatures from staff at Anchor Housing Services, part of Anchor Trust, in order to fight its derecognition at the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC).

At the time of publication, Anchor Trust, the largest not-for-profit provider of housing, support and care in England, reported that it had not received written confirmation of the action, although it had been warned of the move verbally.

Steve Power, regional officer at Unite, told Charity News Alert: "When they served us with notice to derecognise us they said there were two main reasons for this: one was because they didn't like our conduct during the review of the scheme managers terms and conditions and the other was that they were going to rely more on their staff forum to communicate with their staff."

The union needs a petition with the signatures of 50 per cent of Anchor Housing Services staff to take a claim to the CAC to argue it represents the will of employees. If it fails to attract the necessary signatures, Unite will consider submitting a claim to represent one unit within Anchor Housing Services where it has a high level of support. Power said the union had received "hundreds" of signatures and is receiving more on a daily basis. Anchor Housing Services (pictured) employs around 2,500 workers.

A spokeswoman for Anchor Housing Services defended the decision to derecognise Unite, which came into effect in September following a three-month notice period, and denied that Unite's advice during the scheme manager review was the reason for the derecognition.

Staff forum ‘more appropriate'

"Unite represented less than 20 per cent of our Housing Services staff. As a result, we no longer felt that it could fully represent the views of our employees," she said.

"We have built and continue to nurture more direct relationships with our employees, and believe that our staff forum offers a more appropriate and effective method for communicating with all our staff, and for staff to let us know about any issues which they may have."

Differing accounts

But Steve Power disputed the effectiveness of the staff forum following reports from union members who had been voted in as staff representatives on the forum.

"When union members went to the forum they asked questions about real issues like pay, terms and conditions. It's always chaired by management and the chair has consistently said that it is not a forum to discuss things like that," he said.

Challenged about this, Anchor Trust spokeswoman Joanna Nurse rejected the assertion that the forums are chaired by management and said that "staff are able to raise any issue at the staff forum, including issues around pay and conditions. They can discuss the issue freely with other members of the forum, and the issue can also be referred up to line management where appropriate."

Contract dispute

Unite, which has been recognised as a union at the organisation since 2004, said a contract dispute involving sheltered scheme managers was another reason behind its derecognition.

Earlier this year, the housing association reviewed the contracts of scheme managers as there had been inconsistency in relation to the types of duties and hours performed by the staff. Unite complained that it had not been given direct access to the review board and that the decision to limit scheme managers to 36 hours a week resulted in an effective pay cut for those staff who had worked 40 hours a week or more.

"In most cases the average pay cut was around £1,700. These are people whose salary is less than £12,500 a year," said Power.

But Nurse defended the change in conditions, saying that 36 hours was considered a reasonable amount of time for an employee to conduct all the work required of a sheltered scheme manager.

Pay discrepancy

The fact that Dr John Belcher, chief executive of the Anchor Trust, is reportedly earning more than £300,000 per year has caused further outrage within the union.

"This is at a time when literally thousands of his staff are receiving the National Minimum Wage. People are receiving pay cuts and yet he seems to be completely excluded from all of this. And this is an organisation that has charitable status. It's absolutely obscene," said Power.

Anchor responded that all its salaries are benchmarked against that of employees in other housing associations and comparable sectors.

"To directly compare such varying salaries and roles is unrealistic," said Nurse.

Unite says it hopes to bring the matter before the CAC by the end of this year or in early 2009.

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