Centrepoint staff have voted for three days of strike action after an early strike ballot was contested in a legal battle with management.

Unite the Union has today announced that its members at the homelessness charity will strike on 10 and 11 November as well as on the 30th, coinciding with widespread public sector worker strikes on the same date.

The union’s strike ballot in September resulted in a 70-30 split in favour of strike action, but the charity disputed its legitimacy based on what Unite claims were “legal technicalities”.

The latest ballot, which ran from 26 October until yesterday, however, produced a less resounding vote for strike action, with 55 per cent of members voting in favour and 45 per cent against.

However, Centrepoint has questioned the validity of this ballot also. A statement from the charity said: "The first ballot was flawed on a number of grounds, not least that Unite deprived several of its members the right to vote.

"The validity of the second ballot process is also questionable after similar errors were made. These included balloting individuals that had either already left the organisation or were on some form of long-term maternity or sick leave. Given the low turnout in votes, these discrepancies are material to the outcome."

Matt Smith, the union’s regional officer, said: “Despite all the management’s efforts, our members have again voted for strike action. It is very unfair that our members pay will be cut so much that they could fail to keep up their mortgage and rental repayments and join the very people they are dedicated to help.”

The union claims that 112 of the charity’s 212 staff stand to lose “thousands of pounds” in pay a year, and criticises the charity for ring-fencing top executives’ salaries.