Samaritans and Unite are in disagreement over whether the charity has actually de-recognised the union after their annual recognition agreement expired.
Unite yesterday issued a call urging Samaritans to “reconsider its position” in de-recognising the union, claiming this went against the ethos of the charity. Only recognised unions can collectively bargain on behalf of members which are employed at an organisation.
However, Samaritans said it was surprised and disappointed at Unite’s public rebuke given that it is still in the early stages of discussions about renegotiating the recognition agreement. The charity said it is committed to having a good relationship with the union and to having an appropriate agreement in future.
Chief executive Catherine Johnstone said: “It is surprising to us that this statement has been issued as it is our impression that we have been working together working with Unite in order to put in place an appropriate new voluntary recognition agreement that accurately reflects needs of the organisation in the context of the number of staff that are members of the Union, which we believe to be quite low.”
Samaritans does not know how many of its staff are presently Unite members, but a spokeswoman estimated that it was “probably a lot less” than it was eight years ago when Unite became its official union following a merger with another union. Unite was not able to give civilsociety.co.uk figures on its Samaritans membership.
Unite, however, declared Samaritans’ position as a smokescreen. The charity-union recognition agreement is an unusual one, which is renewable each year. Unite says that following a meeting in late May to discuss the agreement, neither the charity nor the union put forward any changes but in the absence of signing the new agreement, the old one has expired.
Unite representative Jamie Major said: “To date they haven’t sent me any proposals to change it, they’ve just reaffirmed that the old agreement has expired. This line that ‘we’re in negotiations’, well there isn’t any negotiations.”
