Staff at a £339m health and social care charity are set to vote on strike action over a pay dispute, trade union Unite has announced.
Today, Unite said over 1,200 workers at nearly 150 Change Grow Live (CGL) sites across England and Scotland would be balloted between 26 June and 10 August.
It said many of the charity’s frontline staff, who are “experienced and highly qualified professionals” supporting people with complex needs, are paid the legal minimum wage.
CGL, which employed 5,715 people overall in the year to March 2025, provides treatment, support and information about drug and alcohol use, smoking, homelessness, justice and probation and employment.
Unite said over the last decade, CGL staff have suffered a real-terms pay cut of 15 to 24%, with workers given 1.5% last year.
It said the CGL executive team were currently refusing to meet Unite to resolve the pay dispute.
Unite: Staff struggling to afford essentials
Unite said its survey of CGL staff shows that 42% have considered using a food bank in the past 12 months, while 46% have had to take on a second job.
Meanwhile, 53% reported that they had struggled to pay their rent or mortgage and 39% have had to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It’s an absolute disgrace that while management are being rewarded with high pay rises, specialist staff on the frontline are struggling to afford the essentials.
“Fair pay for staff at CGL is essential to protecting both workers and the communities they serve.
“This situation cannot continue and Unite will give our members our full support during this dispute.”
Unite regional officer Kate Attwooll said: “CGL workers are often called the fourth emergency service – they work with some of the most vulnerable and challenging members of our society.
“Our members at CGL care deeply about the people they work with and industrial action is a last resort for them.
“However, years of real-terms pay cuts have left them financially struggling and with no choice but to ballot for strikes.
“It’s time CGL management recognised our members’ skills and hard work by coming back to negotiations with a meaningful pay offer.”
CGL ‘open to constructive dialogue with Unite’
A CGL spokesperson told Civil Society that many staff across the charity “are struggling with the gap between what they earn and the cost of living”.
“In terms of the 2025-26 pay award, the negotiation and dispute resolution processes, including the final stage of ACAS facilitated conciliation, were concluded in line with our agreed processes without a resolution being reached,” they said.
“During this process, we made an offer of a 2.5% pay award, backdated to October 2025, which wasn’t accepted. Having now exhausted collective bargaining, we’ve implemented that pay award.
“We recognise this won’t fully address the challenges our staff are facing, but it’s the most we can afford whilst protecting jobs and maintaining financial sustainability in the face of increasing costs and pressures on services.”
They added that, should a strike take place following the upcoming ballot process, the charity has plans to ensure “the people who use our services continue to receive the support they expect and deserve”.
“We remain open to constructive dialogue with Unite and are committed to working with them, and others across the sector, to make the case for the funding and investment needed to improve pay and conditions.”
