A money advice charity has dismissed four of its six frontline staff, hours after they announced plans to strike, according to a union.
Six Rooted Finance employees represented by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) union were set to go on strike on 18 and 19 March.
IWGB said the dismissals of four staff members came after attempts to gain union recognition in the workplace.
Rooted Finance chief executive Muna Yassin denied that dismissals were in relation to union activity.
Union: Workers sacked ‘a few hours’ after strike announcement
IWGB stated: “Just a few hours after workers announced their plans to take strike action, management dismissed them remotely and immediately locked them out of their work laptops.
“Those fired have been left worrying how their clients will survive now that their support has been so suddenly withdrawn.”
Joseph Larkin, one of the dismissed workers, said: “Issues at Rooted Finance existed long before we joined the company, but we were ready to work constructively with management to make the organisation a better place to work so that we could deliver what our clients needed.
“Sadly, management chose to meet us with hostility and intimidation, culminating in most front line staff being fired on the day we announced strike action.
“I worry that management will try to sweep this under the rug, and that the first time our clients find out they have no caseworkers to support them won’t be from Rooted Finance, but will be from a bailiff knocking on their door.”
Charity CEO: ‘a few hours’
Yassin said she took employees’ treatment and wellbeing “very seriously” but denied that employees had been shouted at and said disciplinary action was not related to union activity.
“IWGB gave notice of a strike ballot to Rooted Finance five days after disciplinary proceedings were initiated,” she said.
“Having been involved in the process, we can only conclude that IWGB announced those strikes on the day that they did to coincide with the conclusion of those proceedings – with the intention to give the misleading impression that action taken by RF was in response to their announcement.
“Any action Rooted Finance has taken is in relation to the employees’ conduct under their individual employment contracts, not union activity, and they have the right to appeal the action as is the option open to them in employment legislation.
“RF’s ongoing client services remain unaffected, and our systems show there were no clients impacted by action taken by RF.”
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