Staff at health and social care charity Alternative Futures Group (AFG) have said they will press ahead with plans to strike in response to cuts to overnight staff pay.
Up to 660 AFG staff will take two days’ strike action on Saturday 2 March and Sunday 3 March because the charity is to cut overnight care workers' pay to below minimum wage.
The charity says that this is due to insufficient funds from the local authorities that commission its services. But staff say that AFG should reduce costs from central overheads to continue to pay their staff at the same rates.
This comes after talks between their representatives, UNISON and the charity failed to result in an agreement. In a ballot of 660 of their members, 87 per cent voted in favour of the strike, with a 51.5 per cent turnout to the vote.
After talks mediated by workplace relations advisory service, ACAS, the union declined to agree to a public statement blaming councils for the cuts to worker’s incomes.
Charity 'disappointed'
A spokesperson from AFG said that it was “disappointed” that the strike is to go ahead.
“We are concerned about the impact on our vulnerable service users,” they said.
“The fact remains that AFG, as a not-for-profit charity is, and will continue to be unable, to afford to pay the NMW for sleep-ins. If we could pay it, we would but we have to put the jobs of 2,500 employees first and to ensure the future sustainability of the charity.”
The spokesperson said that the charity has introduced phased payments for support workers and will continue to look at potential legal options it can take to stop the strike.
“It is perplexing that Unison continues to target AFG, which receives insufficient funding from Commissioners to fund sleep-ins at the NMW, when it is widely accepted that the underfunding of social care is a national crisis that requires a national solution.
“We continue to believe that the ballot is defective, to challenge its legality and we await a response from Unison.”
The charity has previously threatened legal action over how the ballot was carried out.
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