Shelter dispute

LOL! Here's the latest, after two days of discussions between management and unions this is what theyve managed to put together.

Courtesy of the ever inept and often condescending Adam Sampson

Quote:

1) Every member of staff who is in post on 1st April 08 will receive a one off (unconsolidated i.e. not part of your salary) payment of £150. Cheers. The price of a decent weekend's festivities. I'll try not to let it change my life.

2) Every member of staff who is disabled and who officially requested (between 7 January '08 and 18 March '08) to stay on their current hours will be able to do so and will not have their salary reduced. I.e. you're not going to break the law by failing to make a reasonable adjustment in working conditions on grounds of disability. Well done.

3) Part of the original organisational change package was an ending of annual increments. Management has now agreed that each person who was due to receive an annual increment this year (2008) will receive a one off increment, unconsolidated payment. This will be paid in May and will be the same amount of money as their annual incremental rise. Where this payment would be less than the earlier compensation offer eg those staff on the bottom of Grades 1 and 2 the higher amount will be paid. Still not an increment is it, though, cock?

4) Some staff have been redeployed to grade 3 Adviser posts. They will now:

a) Have a right to any Grade 4 post that becomes vacant in their office. This will apply for 12 months from 1 April 2008. If there are two or more grade 3 people in that office they will be subject to the usual selection process. The post will not be advertised externally. It's a potential redundancy situtation, so you're not allowed to advertise the posts externally anyway. Once again, well done for not breaking the law.
b) For those redeployed Grade 3 Advisers who do not secure a Grade 4 post, within the above 12-month period, will receive a one-off unconsolidated payment of £500. Cheers!

The principles of the original change package: to increase working hours to 37.5 hours per week, end permanent incremental salary rises and protect the salaries of redeployed staff for two years still apply. However this new package of measures replaces the original offer of compensation. It means that all members of staff will now receive an increased compensation payment to mitigate against the impact of the changes.

We understand that arrangements are new being put in place for the union to ballot their members on this offer. The Trade Union have agreed not to call any further strike action until 23 April 2008. In recognition of this notice periods for those staff who are being dismissed will be extended whilst they consider the revised offer.

A further briefing will follow to all staff and HR will provide further details of the implications.

You can help by:

a) Donating to our strike fund
Please make all cheques payable to ‘Shelter Strike Fund’ and send them to: Shelter Stewards c/0 48 Swindon Close, Gorton, Manchester, M18 8JQ
b) Asking for a speaker at your meeting
Contact shelterstewards@googlemail.com telling us the time, date and location of your meeting and we will do our best to send along a Shelter striker to speak to you.
c) Sending messages of support and protest
•Send messages of support to union members in Shelter: shelterstewards@googlemail.com and c/o Alan Scott, T&GWU, Woodberry, 218 Green Lanes, N4 2HB
•Send messages of protest to Shelter’s senior management team: Please send hard copies and emails to Adam Sampson, Shelter, 88 Old St, London, EC1V 9HU. adam_sampson@shelter.org.uk . Ask that it be forwarded to the Board of Directors and copy it to Shelter stewards at the above address.
•Pass resolutions in your trade union branches supporting stewards and condemning these attacks.
•Write to your MP raising concerns about the attacks on Shelter staff pay and conditions and the organisation’s core values, and ask them to sign the Early Day Motions in both the Scottish and Westminster parliaments:
•Westminster EDM - number 1016 entitled ‘Shelter and its staff’.
•Scottish EDM number S3M-01475 entitled ‘Solidarity with Shelter Workers’.

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I/We are able to make a donation of £…….. to the Shelter strike fund.

I/we would like to request a speaker for a meeting: (include date, time, location)

Name:
Trade union branch/ organisation:
Address:
Email:
Phone:
Please return this to: Shelter Stewards, c/o 48 Swindon Close, Gorton, Manchester M18 8JQ.

posi wrote:

The lack of serious union strike funds in this country is a total joke...

Not really, it makes sense since the unions mostly don't want workers to strike. My union UNISON spends a lot of effort trying to sabotage industrial action; others are a lot worse.

Sampson added that he did not consider the Shelter union members’ vote of 65 per cent in favour of strikes – equivalent to 19.5 per cent of the charity’s total staff – represented a “legitimate mandate” for further strike action.

“In the interests of our service users and the whole organisation the dispute should now be concluded,"