{"id":20155,"date":"2020-03-13T10:29:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T10:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=20155"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:44:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:44:30","slug":"st-mungos-worker-strike-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=20155","title":{"rendered":"‘We just want to be listened to’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Homeless people are among the most vulnerable groups in society \u00e2\u20ac\u201c indeed while the average person in the UK can expect to live well past 75, the average rough sleeper in Britain will be lucky to live to celebrate their 45th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worker Martin*, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been working in the sector for several years now, helping the homeless is a labour of love \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one that he persists with despite the extreme levels of stress he and his colleagues must deal with on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Crisis after crisis’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou start with a plan for the day, and it never turns out according to plan,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explains to UniteLive. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bEvery day, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dealing with crisis after crisis that we have to respond to immediately.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou may have a client who has a history of severe mental health issues who needs to be in a psychiatric hospital but has gone missing so we have to go out and find him. Or you get a call from a client who is suicidal and says he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to kill himself imminently. Or a woman who is in a domestic violence situation who needs to be brought to safety immediately.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Martin says he and his colleagues must respond to such crises while also doing daily outreach shifts, which involve making contact with rough sleepers who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been referred to the charity by members of the public.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur outreach rotas start early at 6am. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given an area with a list of maybe 10 or more people to target as well as visiting people already in our system. As a co-ordinator of an outreach team, I also have to do follow-up work, liaising with other parties such as local authorities and allocating clients to different staff, among other duties.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The job in itself is challenging, Martin explains, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been compounded by increasing workloads.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re dealing with caseloads of 40 or more per team member \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in a previous homeless charity I worked with, I never had more than around 20 cases at a time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to the point it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nearly impossible to do the sort of follow-up work that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vital for supporting our clients. You come to work some days and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just paralysed by all you have to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Still, the work he says can be immensely rewarding.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen you work with someone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finally secured accommodation and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re crying they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so happy; or when a client beats their addiction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it really makes the job worth it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a really gratifying feeling to know that our work very literally saves people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But while Martin and his colleagues go the extra mile day-in and day-out to support our most vulnerable, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re failing to get support in return from their employer St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Punished for being sick<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe job is so stressful that we at St Mungo’s have some of the highest rates of people off sick in the sector,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Martin explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut even if we do become very ill, many of us are afraid to take sick leave because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re effectively punished for it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s onerous sick policy means once staff reach what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098level 3\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sickness absence, they may be dismissed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPersonally I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m nearly at a level 2 already. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m genuinely worried about being sacked if I become ill again.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The charity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sick policy is only one of a number of issues that have prompted St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staff to take unprecedented strike action next week from Monday, March 16.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another major problem, Martin explains, is the way in which St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management tore up a Unite-negotiated agreement meant to protect pay, terms and conditions, and also help run an effective service.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Called the junior staffing cap, the agreement limited the ratio of junior staff to more senior staff, to ensure that the service they provide is safely run by experienced workers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen you hire more and more junior staff at lower pay, what happens in practice is these inexperienced, often younger workers end up informally taking on some of the work of senior staff. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re totally out of their element and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re certainly not motivated to take on senior-level work being paid so little.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blindingly obvious that this is a cost-cutting measure meant to be a race-to-the-bottom for all of us.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A moral issue<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For Martin, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not any one specific issue that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motivated him to vote for strike action but rather management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unrelenting tactics that have completely destroyed his trust in them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as if all they care about is their brand and not the actual service and staff. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listen to us. They spend tens of thousands of pounds on PR, have an executive team earning \u00c2\u0141700,000 between them, then they try to cut costs everywhere else. They have taken a very heavy-handed anti-union approach amid this dispute, banning union meetings at work. And then on top of everything they punish us for being sick.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Highlighting the 2018 scandal, where it was revealed St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management passed on details of its migrant clients to the Home Office<\/a> to facilitate deportations, Martin said the dispute has also become a moral one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAfter the story first came out, in effect dragging our names through the mud, management repeatedly denied and denied the allegations. And now months later they admit it and apologise<\/a>. Now we have clients who simply don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust us anymore; who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to engage with us. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had a huge impact on staff morale.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Martin urged management to see sense and meet their very reasonable demands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not asking for much at all,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe just want to be listened to. We want to run a safe, effective service and we want the support to do this. Many of us who are striking are doing so for the first time. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re nervous and taking strike action doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sit comfortably with many. But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re even more scared to imagine the future of the service if we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand up and fight.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Name changed to protect privacy<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TAKE ACTION <\/strong><\/p>\n

Please support the workers. Join a picket line or come along to one of the rallies near you. Find out more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tweet your messages of solidarity @StMungos #StMungosStrike. Your support matters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"SupportStMungosTW\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homeless people are among the most vulnerable groups in society \u00e2\u20ac\u201c indeed while the average person in the UK can expect to live well past 75, the average rough sleeper in Britain will be lucky to live to celebrate their 45th birthday.   For St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worker Martin*, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been working in the sector for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[179,1093],"wps_subtitle":"St Mungo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worker speaks out on why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taking strike action","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24650,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155\/revisions\/24650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}