Staff picket Notting Hill headquarters
Trade union members at Notting Hill Housing group went on strike on Monday over changes to their terms and conditions.
Members of Unison picketed the housing association’s Hammersmith headquarters over the changes which include abolition of carers’ leave, changing flexitime to flexible working, and reduction in the duration of relocation allowances and redeployment salary protection.
The changes came into effect from this month.
The picket line, which had about 20 people on it when Inside Housing visited, attracted hoots of support from passing drivers.
Unison said there were 100 people on the picket line at peak time. Notting Hill said 122 people went on strike.
The strike was the first for 15 years by housing association members of Unison in London.
The association said it will increase annual leave to 30 days, and introduce time off in-lieu, which it said would help balance the changes to carers’ leave and flexitime.
A spokesperson said: ‘The joint consultative and negotiating committee [of members from Notting Hill and Unison] has been discussing and negotiating the new terms and conditions since July 2009. Part of this negotiation was the withdrawal of the proposal to increase the working week to 37 hours and the decision to remain on a 35 hour working week.
‘We have conducted an equality impact assessment to ascertain whether or not the proposed changes would discriminate against any staff group and we have found this not to be the case.’
She said Notting Hill could not afford such generous redeployment and relocation policies in the current economic climate.
She added: ‘Notting Hill has brilliant staff who want to do a great job. The change programme is about redesigning our systems and processes so that our residents can really benefit. The review of terms and conditions is part of this process.’
One striker said: ‘I am a carer so that is a massive part of it. For me more than anything it is about the lack of consideration, the lack of respect. They do not care that they are alienating staff.’
Another said: ‘It will discourage people from going the extra mile.’
Staff member Rebecca Gates said: ‘I have worked here for a long time. It used to be great place to work but at the moment staff are feeling demoralised. I have never seen anything like this before.’
Colin Inniss, regional organiser for Unison, said: ‘It was a fantastic turnout. I do not see how management can say staff are happy with these changes to terms and conditions because quite obviously they are not. All they [Notting Hill] have to do is talk.’
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Readers' comments (23)
Anon | 17/03/2010 9:16 am
How strange that NHH could not afford such generous redeloyment and relocation expenses in the current economic climate and yet the Chief Executive has been given a pay rise. Furthermore, even stranger that the equality impact assessment stated that the changes in terms & conditions would have an adverse impact on working mothers but the needs of the buisness took precedence. Does this "spokesperson" even work at NHH?
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The ONLY One | 17/03/2010 9:34 am
Anon - what a ridiculous argument. The income streams for NHHT are many, and to suppose that no staff should get a pay rise in order to fund support workers is plain daft. The issue here is not NHHT, but the funding they receive from the commissioners of care/support services who are having their budgets slashed therefore (in true Labour style) wanting more service for less funding. Anyone who works in the care sector knows what's happening!!! And yes, the business sometimes has to come first - no business, no service!
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anon | 17/03/2010 9:49 am
20 people on the picket line, roughly 700 staff employed? hardly a massive turnout.
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RCPer | 17/03/2010 10:10 am
anon - there are 20 odd people in the static video but over 110 members on the protest! There are plenty of photos of the true numbers of the net.
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Mary Powell | 17/03/2010 10:25 am
The picket line at Hammersmith was far more than 20 people, that figure seems to have been derived from looking at one photo. Picket lines were at the front and back of the building and different staff members took turns at the picket line during the day. Estimated that well over 100 UNISON members attended the picket line during the day. Not all of the staff who went on strike are based at or near the head office anyway.
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The Sidley Assassin | 17/03/2010 10:42 am
These changes unfairly target women and roll back years of progress. Without the ability to work flexibly many people, especially women with young families, could well be forced out of the workplace all together. For the sake of these relatively low cost initiatives many women have been able to pursue good careers in the housing sector.
All the staff want to do is talk. They are not anti change or anti progress, in fact quite the opposite. They want to retain the progress made in the past and build upon it. NHHT seems to want to roll back the clock to a time where women were not allowed to contemplate having a career and a family.
The cost of Carers Leave works out at around 30k, under a third of the Cheif Executives salary.
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Mary Powell | 17/03/2010 1:11 pm
Thanks for the clarification/amendment to the picket line numbers (above). More photos and video can be seen at the union branch website (http://www.unisonhablondon.org/) and the NHHT strike blog (http://altogetherworse.blogspot.com/).
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HWYW | 17/03/2010 1:50 pm
"Part of this negotiation was the withdrawal of the proposal to increase the working week to 37 hours and the decision to remain on a 35 hour working week".
In fact the new contracts state: "you are expected to work your normal business hours together with any necessary to fulfil the duties and requirements of the job, but not exceeding 48 hours per week".
This is not a concession.
.
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The ONLY One | 17/03/2010 2:04 pm
I just don't get the comparison with the CE's salary - it's meaningless!! If £30k is the issue, and there are 700 staff then they ALL can contribute £42.85 - that's a bit more palitable isn't it? Only 82p per week out of your salary. OR, 1.5 carers posts with the other (alleged) 108.5 post working an additional 30 seconds per week to make up the resulting 54 hour shortfall.
See, you can do anything with figures!!!!
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RCPer | 17/03/2010 2:10 pm
anon - there are 20 odd people in the static video but over 110 members on the protest! There are plenty of photos of the true numbers of the net.
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