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Union angered by charity chief executive’s Prince William visit 4

Finance | Gareth Jones | 4 Aug 2011

Staff at Centrepoint are to be balloted on strike action over proposed pay cuts, increases in hours and job losses, with the charity’s chief executive being criticised for flying to Los Angeles while a staff consultation is ongoing.

Unite says that between 14 and 28 posts will be made redundant, with others moved to a 37.5 hour week or suffering wage reductions.

It is believed that more than 100 frontline employees will be affected, and while Centrepoint is still talking to staff, it has ceased negotiations with Unite.

Matt Smith, regional officer for the trade union, said Seyi Obakin’s decision to join the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their US visit was insensitive when some employees were facing pay cuts of up to £10,000.

“It was later discovered that while frontline staff were trying to bargain for a fairer deal, Mr Obakin has been busy ingratiating himself as a member of William and Kate’s Los Angeles entourage.

“At the best, this was insensitive; at worst, this smacks of being an unnecessary sycophantic jaunt for no apparent good reason.”

Equal opps records lost

Unite believes that Centrepoint’s black and ethnic minority staff will be disproportionately represented in the group facing changes, but said that the charity had been unable to deny or verify this as “it has been unable to locate its records on equal opportunities monitoring”.

The union has also highlighted the fact that, according to the charity’s latest annual accounts, six of its senior executives earn more than £60,000.

The strike ballot will take place later this month. A consultative ballot among 88 members was 82 per cent in favour of a ballot on strike action.

Centrepoint declined to comment on the US trip or the equal opportunities issue, but said in a statement that government funding cuts are to blame for the changes.

It added: “A number of inaccuracies regarding proposed changes to Centrepoint’s organisational structure have been made public.

“We can confirm that we are now consulting with individual staff about these changes, but it would not be appropriate to discuss this in any more detail at this stage as our first priority is to our staff and the young people we support.

“Centrepoint has engaged in full and meaningful consultation with the union Unite to ensure all staff understand the nature and need for this restructure, having explored all other options. Unite has not provided any constructive counter proposals.”

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