Victory for St Mungo’s staff as management bows to pressure

Celebratory rally: St Mungo's Broadway staff. Photograph: glenn McMahon

Celebratory rally: St Mungo’s Broadway staff. Photograph: Glenn McMahon

Staff at St Mungo’s Broadway have called off a ten-day strike due to start this morning after senior management backtracked on cuts to pay and conditions imposed during the summer.

However a planned rally outside the homeless charity’s head office in Hammersmith this morning went ahead albeit with a celebratory mood instead where chief executive Howard Sinclair spoke to workers and admitted responsibility for the dispute.

Staff had already taken part in a weeklong strike two weeks ago, but a complete turnaround by management during talks with Unite union officials yesterday at mediation service ACAS averted a second round of action.

Bryan Kennedy, a Hackney Unite housing representative, said: “[Management] capitulated on everything. They knew their charitable donations were going to be affected after councils, MPs and donors got behind the campaign.

“I think Hackney Council speaking out really helped. I think it put the wind up the management.”

Hackney Council announced two weeks ago it would re-evaluate its contract with SMB over concerns the quality of services it was paying for would be affected while MPs expressed their concern in parliament.

Employees also warned that the new policies – new starters’ pay cut by £5,000, reduced employment protection and diminished union representation – imposed in July would damage morale and the quality of services to clients prompting experienced staff to leave.

A Mare Street hostel worker who did not want to be named, said he was pleased at the outcome, but warned the damage done may be difficult to rectify.

He said: “It’s a good day today. Absolutely huge. We appreciate changes need to be made, but how they did it [without consultation] was completely wrong and they probably would have got away with it had we not had the union to support us.

“Hopefully [management] will speak to us as people now, not as fodder, because that’s how we felt. People have left in the last few weeks. They felt they couldn’t work here anymore. It’s a job that’s not easy, and to treat us like that when we have to put up with some of the things we do, it’s just not on.

“But the damage has been done now and we know what their game is for the future and it’s not one that people can stomach, that’s not what I joined St Mungo’s Broadway for.”

SMB’s chief executive Howard Sinclair, who had been the sole target for blame throughout the campaign, surprised staff when he spoke at the rally this morning. After taking responsibility for the dispute he asked for staff and management to come together for the sake of clients and charity.

He said: “No strike comes without wounds and we need to heal those and we need to be grown up and show a lead on how to do that and I need to do that and I believe we can unite around what we are most passionate about: doing the very best we can by each other and putting our clients at the heart of everything we do together.”

Amid calls for him to hand back his £30,000 pay rise, he said, referring to government cuts in funding: “All I know is that society has some choices about how it allocates its money and the vulnerable and homeless should be at the top of that list.”

Adam Lambert, SMB’s Unite the Union convenor, praised the staff for their commitment to the campaign and thanked councillors, MPs and supporters from across the country for their support.

He said: “People make difficult choices when it comes to strike action, and there are many excuses not to do so, but you did participate and because you showed unity and strength you won.

And striking a conciliatory tone, he said: “The union has delivered a lot of ultimatums to management in the last few months, but the time is right for a new way of working and if the management now respects the quality of services, the rights of the workforce and the strength of the union then there needn’t be a battle between us and we want them to continue with us in that spirit.”

Bryan Kennedy, a Hackney housing representative, said: “People have to remember this day. Sinclair said he was going to sit this out. Well he hasn’t. He couldn’t take a second round. This is the best campaign I’ve ever seen.”

Staff will return to work on the same terms and conditions they were on before the dispute.

19 Comments

  1. Care Worker on Wednesday 5 November 2014 at 19:37

    Time for the overpaid failures who came in and tried to wreck this charity to resign



  2. Care Worker on Wednesday 5 November 2014 at 19:38

    Howard Sinclair “All I know is that society has some choices about how it allocates its money and the vulnerable and homeless should be at the top of that list.” – rather than incompetent chief executives and bullying HR directors eh H?



  3. Care Worker on Wednesday 5 November 2014 at 19:40

    and a correction

    Howard wasnt the sole target

    Helen Giles – Executive Director of HR
    David Fisher – Wingman and enforcer

    and Paul Doe Chair of the board were also targetted and rightly so



  4. Jack the Mack on Wednesday 5 November 2014 at 20:36

    [Deleted by moderator]



  5. Jack the Mack on Wednesday 5 November 2014 at 20:43

    Howard and Helen have brought a lot to SMB, so credit to them for the

    Real Lettings
    Real People
    Real Systems

    REAL FAILURES



  6. Dedalus on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 08:59

    Now

    let’s have Hackney council write some clauses into its tenders to weight bids towards organisations that pay more to front line staff – it’s social value, local people earning and spending in the local community

    And

    towards organisations with a lower ratio of exec to frontline pay rates



  7. Mungos worker on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 12:56

    Going forward a vote of no confidence for Chief exec and HR along with senior management panels. They Demonstrated a lack of discernment in there dealings with Employees/Job roles and entitlements – whilst affording/indulging themselves with Pay Rises – Selfishness and Greed at its worst and poor Managerial skills and a lack of Wisdom at best.

    Should such a continued poor lack of Judgment be in position? Let alone be rewarded!



  8. Dolly Dagger on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 19:04

    Howard Sinclair has zero credibility after this debacle. Time to resign methinks. PS takeHelen Giles and David Fisher with you.



  9. Lestweforget on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 20:44

    Don’t forget

    Paul Doe’s gotta go!



  10. Housing Worker on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 20:53

    Congrats on your victory! This is exactly what happens when incompetent, greedy and short-sighted dimwits attempt to run a charity like a business. The only way forward is for SInclair and his poor excuse of a management team to resign, as SMB’s reputation is already in tatters and morale is at an all time low. Quality staff and local authorities who know their hidden agenda will look elsewhere. Who needs an organisation like this?



  11. Dolly Dagger on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 20:59

    Rumour has it that Paul Doe is on his way out. One down, three to go!



  12. Strike for Victory on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 21:50

    All workers remember

    Next time your greedy selfish bullying incompetent boss tries to push you down and grab even more for themselves – organise unionise strike

    It works

    We shouldn’t need to, we could have a better society, but some people are psychopaths who believe they are entitled to more money and power than they ever need

    Most like Sinclair and his pathetic gang are just bullies who can’t when it comes down to it cut the mustard
    Sadly these people alway make sure they get the biggest pay off no matter how useless they are at the job



  13. [Deleted by moderator] on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 21:57

    [Deleted by moderator]



  14. Peter Foster on Thursday 6 November 2014 at 22:09

    Respect to the St Mungos workers and congratulations on the result.

    From a doner’s point of view how can anyone seriously give their hard earned donations to a charity whose chief executive behaves in this manner.

    I would not give any money to the charity as long as he is there, and nor would others if they knew.

    Good luck for the future, I think you are going to need it.



  15. Housing Worker on Sunday 9 November 2014 at 10:17

    I feel sorry for SMB’s fundraising team. Given the golden handshake and bonuses that were paid to their ex-CEO and senior managers, coupled with their bullying and contempt shown to frontline workers, who in their right mind would now want to donate even one penny to this organsation?



  16. Bob on Friday 14 November 2014 at 19:26

    Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is do you? Mr Sinclair…
    You said you’d never compromise
    With the Unite convenor, but now you realise
    He’s not selling any alibis
    As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
    And say do you want to make a deal?
    How does it feel to be on your own- like a complete unknown with no direction home?



  17. Jez on Saturday 24 October 2015 at 17:46

    No mention of the wonderful Mr Frazer? This has been called a ‘Bizzare Coup D’etat’, but that would imply some kind of resistance from the outgoing regime. But there was none. They all went very quietly. And in hindsight it’s clear that the Broadway agenda was being implemented at least two years before the official ‘merger’. Do the maths folks. Charity has become the last refuge of the scumbag who can’t cut it in the real business world



  18. js on Saturday 24 October 2015 at 19:44

    God knows – but as a neighbour to the hostel, I have noted that since broadway took over management the external footprint of Mungos improved immensely – we don’t have people propositioning our 3 year olds in their own gardens, while protected by Mungo staff, we don’t have to listen to men hammering 7 shades out of shit out of women in the hostel night after night, being protected by mungo staff, we don’t have to run the gauntlet of people drinking and begging (a euphemism for stand-over robbery – but only for women, because they didn’t do it to people who could stand up for themselves), also protected by mungo staff, we don’t have the opportunistic robberies as people climb the fence from mungos to strip properties of bikes and any property not tied down, protected by mungo staff, we don’t have the excluded people screaming at the residents though the night to do the drug deals from the carpark below because the gates and fire-escapes are now locked. And finally when the mungo staff were on strike, blowing trumpets and the like, it wasn’t the broadway people threating physical violence for asking them to allow access to the street, and to show some consideration for the people working around them – but the mungo people (at least the skinny ex-junkie claiming the strikers were his people) certainty did.

    So all in all – thank you Broadway.

    Lets hope it is good news that broadway/westminister drug project have now taken over from lifeline in the providing the “services” around tudor grove/mare st – all these services were set up without the planning consultation with the neighbourhood, and then relied on lies and misreprentations, and the LBH rolling over about the impact on the community once it became apparent they needed to consult – for example saying there was no ASB, at the same time the police were targeting asb on tudor grove as their number one problem – of course lifeline did not consult the police, so it the information gap made the lie legitimate.

    Compared to the cowboys – Broadway are a godsend.



  19. js on Saturday 24 October 2015 at 19:46

    sorry to be clear – the requirement to consult is a legal requirement laid down by legislation – but ignored by lifeline, DAAT, and LBH. it appears that is all over now.



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