Unite is claiming St Mungo’s is ‘wasting money’ on recruiting temporary staff amid an indefinite strike by workers over pay.

They claim that the charity has been recruiting agency staff “to undermine legal strike action”, a move that is prohibited as of today (August 10), when a High Court ruling banning the use of agency workers to cover the duties of striking workers comes into force.

According to the union, St Mungo's has been left “tying itself in knots, wasting money in a desperate attempt to transfer agency workers on to short term contracts” to meet today’s deadline.

“Instead of solving the dispute St Mungo’s is allowing the ongoing strike action to cause major disruption” said Unite, which is staging a rally outside the charity’s London HQ today.

“The charity’s actions are creating an expensive and administrative nightmare.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Companies and organisations had already begun to use agency workers as a way to break legal strikes. Pitting worker against worker in an attempt to union bust. As of 10 August, this will no longer be an avenue hostile employers can use.

“St Mungo’s now needs to focus on solving this long running dispute. They need to stop looking for ways to break the strike and start looking for ways to solve it.”

The two-year dispute over pay at the homelessness charity involves 500 union members and escalated to indefinite strike action in June.

The union says its membership among St Mungo’s workers has increased by 350 during the dispute.

St Mungo's seems happy to increase rents and service charges by above inflation and to up their CEO’s £189,000 pay by five per cent, yet they refuse to treat workers fairly. Now is the time to do the right thing.

Read more ➡️https://t.co/LTh6agzzkW pic.twitter.com/KYRyiRSLO9

— Sharon Graham (@UniteSharon) August 9, 2023

Among union concerns is the reported £189,000 salary of the charity’s chief executive Emma Haddad while “the lowest workers get just £20,000.

Haddad was criticised by the union earlier this summer after she was alleged to have lost her temper and shouted at workers during pay talks. The charity said in June it is taking the allegations “seriously in line with our existing procedures”.

“We recognise the change in law regarding the use of agency staff to cover workers on strike and have plans in place to ensure we can support our clients when it comes into force," said a St Mungo's spokesperson.

“We have made a new offer aimed at resolving the pay dispute and we will be discussing the detail with Unite representatives over the coming days.

“We are doing everything we can to work with Unite, so together we can end this dispute at a time when the demand for our services is increasing. We need to ensure that the charity is sustainable, so that we can continue to deliver services to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities".

A survey in July found that almost two in five (38%) of the British public back charity workers taking strike action over pay and conditions.

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