Hundreds of workers from homelessness charity St Mungo’s have today walked out for the first day of indefinite strike action as a lengthy pay wrangle continues.
The new action follows a month-long strike that ended yesterday (Monday).
It was announced by trade union Unite, which represents 800 workers at the charity.
The walkout comes after the trade union balloted more than 500 workers across southern England, including in London, Bristol, Brighton, Oxford, Bournemouth and Reading.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said: “The charity’s staff do not take indefinite strike action lightly but they face a desperate situation – they need St Mungo’s to listen and act.
“The indifference of the management to their own staff smacks of the corporatisation of the charity sector.”
Founded in 1969, St Mungo’s had a total income of more than £118m last year, according to accounts filed by the charity. Its expenditure was also £118m.
The charity has 1,550 employees, 10 trustees and 1,297 volunteers, with five members of staff on a salary of more than £100,000.
“St Mungo’s have executives on well over £100,000 a year and the same people insist their workers should exist on poverty wages with actual wage cuts,” added Graham.
Emma Haddad, chief executive of St Mungo’s, said: “It was unexpected to hear that Unite has extended its period of strike action indefinitely.”
She said the charity was “in the middle of discussions aimed at finding a solution” and had had a “constructive meeting” with Unite representatives earlier this month.
“Bringing an end to this unprecedented period of industrial action remains our key priority, so we can all focus on working together to support people at risk of, or recovering from, homelessness,” she said.
The dispute between Unite members and St Mungo’s has been rumbling on for months.
In May, union members rejected what Unite called a “pitiful” pay increase offer.
It followed an offer from the charity’s bosses to raise the original salary increase from 1.75 per cent to what Unite said amounted to an average of 2.25 per cent per frontline worker, as part of an attempt to end the long-running dispute.
The charity said the 1.75 per cent increase was the pay rise for 2021/22 and the latest amount was on top of the 2023/24 pay rise, which was still being negotiated with the National Joint Council.
It said its additional offer was capped to focus on staff on lower salaries and would mean the lowest-paid employees would have benefitted the most because both offers were fixed-sum increases.
It said staff earning up to £25,000 a year were expected to gain at least a 10 per cent increase.