Shelter's unionised employees are being balloted on possible strike action this week over the charity’s move to implement a new pay scale.
Unite the union claims the proposed changes could mean pay cuts of up to £5,000 a year for new advice and support workers and £3,000 for existing frontline staff.
It has warned Shelter’s management that the move risks creating a two-tier workforce of frontline and non-frontline staff because the proposed scale differs from the one for non-frontline workers and could see some advice workers earning up to £3,000 a year less than colleagues working on the same grade, but in a different role.
More than 330 Shelter employees are members of Unite, comprising around a quarter of its total workforce of 1,300 including shops staff.
The strike ballot closes on Thursday 4 December.
Unite recently wrote to Shelter’s trustees to advise them that the new “grossly unfair” pay scale would result in a “brain drain” by driving skilled staff out of the charity and into better-paid jobs.
It wrote: “It is argued that we will still be able to recruit people at the new levels of pay proposed. Our concern is not that we will be able to recruit at all, but that we will not be able to recruit and retain the colleagues we need to continue to deliver an excellent service. Colleagues have already reported difficulties in recruiting staff on new pay scales.”
Unite regional officer Peter Storey pointed out that the charity was cutting the pay of some of its lowest earners while the pay of those with “huge salaries” at the top is protected.
“There appears to be one rule for one and one for another – it is not the way a progressive charity should behave.”
Response from Shelter CEO
Shelter’s chief executive Campbell Robb said the charity’s management was disappointed to learn of the ballot. He sought to explain the charity’s reasons for changing the pay structure:
“At Shelter we aim to pay a broadly typical market salary across all roles and we benchmark salaries regularly to help us achieve this.
“In doing so we have found we currently pay staff working in advice and support well above the salary for similar roles elsewhere, which with funding cuts and more competition for donors we cannot sustain.
“This leaves us with a simple but painful choice: keep the higher pay levels, cut our services and make some roles redundant, or maintain the number of people we help and reduce salaries for new staff.
“We always strive to be the best employer we can be, but in this instance we feel we have to put our ability to help those who need it first.”
