{"id":6985,"date":"2015-11-30T15:30:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6985"},"modified":"2015-11-30T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T15:30:12","slug":"4000-a-year-pay-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6985","title":{"rendered":"\u00c2\u01414000-a-year pay cut"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Repairs and maintenance to homes managed by Thirteen, the largest group of housing associations in the north east, could be delayed and postponed in the run-up to Christmas as it becomes embroiled in a pay dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nUnite is calling on its 450 members to take part in a continuous work-to-rule, call-out ban and ban on overtime starting just past midnight on Saturday (December 5).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe union says that some of its members could lose as much as \u00c2\u01414,000 a year, while the chief executive Alison Thain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s package substantially increased from \u00c2\u0141158,000 in 2014 to \u00c2\u0141176,000 for 2015, excluding pension contributions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nUnite members at the housing association responsible for social housing on Teesside, voted for strike action with 70 per cent in favour and by 80 per cent for action short of a strike.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe management offered a 2.5 per cent pay rise for 2015\/2016, however it insisted on the new group terms and conditions (t&amp;cs) being accepted as part of the pay award; leaving many members with detrimental take home pay, a reduction in standby\/callout payments, removal of the essential car allowance, reduction in overtime rates and the imposition of a pay freeze for 2016\/17.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe management has stated its intention to circumnavigate the recognised trades unions and seek volunteers to move onto the new t&amp;cs on an individual basis.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe had been in talks for nearly two years to try and bring together four different sets of terms and conditions, as a result of the Thirteen Group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s formation in 2014,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite regional officer Mike Routledge explained.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis multi-organisation merger is a result of several housing associations and former council housing organisations coming together as one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members have not taken this decision for industrial action lightly,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Routledge went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have been pushed to this by the employer, with many members actually worse off if this package were to be accepted as part of their pay claim, with some standing to lose as much as \u00c2\u01414,000 a year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was further exacerbated during the Acas conciliation process when the company actually introduced the concept of a pay freeze for next year.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nRoutledge criticised the disparity in pay between Thirteen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workforce and its executive director, who was the beneficiary of double figure pay increases.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nHe noted that industrial action may mean that repairs and maintenance for the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s properties will be delayed in the run-up to Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHowever, even at this late stage we are available to engage at any time in meaningful negotiations with the company to try and resolve this dispute,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will be liaising with the other unions representing the 1,400-strong workforce \u00e2\u20ac\u201c GMB, Ucatt and Unison \u00e2\u20ac\u201c going forward.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nAccording to Thirteen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website, the partners own and manage more than 32,000 homes from an area spanning North Tyneside to York, making Thirteen the largest group of housing associations in the North East \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and in the top 25 nationally. Thirteen also notes it is one of the ten largest employers in the North East.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Repairs and maintenance to homes managed by Thirteen, the largest group of housing associations in the north east, could be delayed and postponed in the run-up to Christmas as it becomes embroiled in a pay dispute. &nbsp; Unite is calling on its 450 members to take part in a continuous work-to-rule, call-out ban and ban [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[131,449,437],"wps_subtitle":"Housing association pay dispute triggers industrial action ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6986,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions\/6986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}