Southwark homeless charity workers have begun an ‘indefinite’ strike, following an ongoing dispute over pay.
Frontline staff from St Mungo’s Homeless Charity have been on strike for the last four weeks, amid a pay dispute with their employer. But after ‘getting nowhere’ so far, they have now announced they will continue to strike ‘indefinitely.’
“We have excellent staff who love their jobs,” Outreach Manager, Eammon Egerton, said. “But they can’t survive on the pay they are currently receiving.”
In 2021, they say they received a 1.75 per cent pay increase – below the rate of inflation. This year it was raised to 2.25 per cent, which was rejected by staff and Unite members.
In fact, Unite reported that since 2010, Mungo’s staff pay has been cut ‘in real terms’ by 30 per cent.
The majority (93 per cent) of staff voted to strike – one of whom was Sofia Martino.
She says she doesn’t want to be striking but is left with no choice. “Rent is increasing – and it increases every year and yet our pay has decreased. We’re adults, we’ve been sharing a living space for a long time. It should be normal to have a property and live alone – but we can’t afford to.
“I don’t want to be striking, I want to be helping people.”
St Mungo’s is a leading homeless charity, that provides ongoing support to rough sleepers, giving them somewhere to stay and referring them to services to help them in any way possible.
Although the strike is ‘necessary,’ long-time employee Eammon says this stands to greatly affect the vital services they provide in the area.
“Firstly, there’s almost no outreach happening right now,” said Eammon, who has been working there for nearly 20 years.
“This means no one is going out onto the streets of Southwark to engage and support rough sleepers. This is a problem.”
“The temporary staff are working hard but they don’t know the clients or the projects. So they can’t deliver the same standard of work that Mungo’s is known for.”
He said it is crucial for the homeless people they work with to have consistency – “we know many of them and they trust us – they don’t want to keep telling their traumatic .”
“We have already started to lose staff. If this dispute is not resolved – then more will leave. And that will only affect our clients.”
Emma Haddad, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said: “It was unexpected to hear that Unite has extended its period of strike action indefinitely.
“We are in the middle of discussions aimed at finding a solution and had a constructive meeting with Unite representatives on 12 June.
“Bringing an end to this unprecedented period of industrial action remains our key priority, so we can all focus on working together to support people at risk of, or recovering from, homelessness.”
The local council is supporting the action, commenting that they are concerned about what this will mean for rough sleepers in Southwark.
Cllr Helen Dennis, Cabinet Member for New Homes & Sustainable Development, said: “St Mungo’s frontline workers do absolutely vital work in Southwark to help us in our efforts to end rough sleeping and we believe they should be paid a decent wage to reflect this and the rising cost of living. We are very concerned about the impact of indefinite strike action on the support available for those who are homeless in Southwark. We are urging St Mungo’s management to get back round the table and agree a fair deal as soon as possible.”
