Shelter Sheffield: Charity workers regret two-week strike over pay but 'we need to feed our families too'

Union members nationwide from Shelter UK have been picketing their offices for nearly two weeks over a pay dispute, saying a wage offer of three per cent plus a one-off payment amounts to a “significant real terms cut” in the face of inflation.

Speaking outside their offices in Hereford Street, Sheffield Shelter workers said they were caught between offering advice to clients in crisis every day before going home and finding they also need help paying their bills.

The ‘unprecedented’ two-week strike by the charity ends this Friday (December 16).

“Our workers are finding that they themselves are now experiencing significant financial hardship, using food banks and struggling to pay their rent,” said strike co-coordinator Neil MacPherson.

“We support some of the most vulnerable households in Sheffield – people struggling to pay their gas and electricity bills, feed themselves and pay their rent – and then workers are finding when they leave work they are facing there own financial hardships.”

Neil said, during the strike, the charity was running ‘skeleton services’ to help people in crisis, but day-to-day help –assisting with benefits claims, communicating with utility providers and helping people look for employment – was on hold. One member of staff, Jenny, said they felt being a charity on strike opened them up to criticism.

Jenny said: “It’s tough. Especially for people who work in charity we know that we’re going to be criticised – ‘people need you, how can you go on strike for two weeks’. But we’re doing this for our clients – Shelter need to be able to properly pay and employ the calibre of people who do this job. No one is getting rich in charity work, you do it for the people.”

It comes after staff rejected a pay offer of three per cent plus a ‘non-consolidated one-off payment’ of £1,500, meaning the charity would not be obliged to include it or raise it next year. A spokesperson for Shelter said the payment amounted to an “an increase of between eight and 12.3 per cent”. Neil claims this comes while the charity has “approximately £13.5m” in reserves it could use to pay staff.

Neil called the decision to go on strike for two weeks ahead of Christmas “unprecedented”. He said: “We are in danger of staff at Shelter needing to refer to their own advice. We felt that we needed to send a message to Shelter. And the best way to do that was come out on strike for two weeks prior to this time of year when Shelter campaigns would be at its most prominent. It's been a really really difficult decision for workers to take. But we need to feed our families too.”

Tim Gutteridge, director of finance at Shelter, said: “Regrettably the cost-of-living crisis is impacting both our colleagues and operational costs, and we are doing everything we can to navigate these challenging economic times. Industrial action is not the outcome we wanted after months of talks with the union, but we fully respect people’s right to strike.”

He added: “As a Real Living Wage employer, Shelter is also implementing the Real Living Wage Foundation’s increase of 10.1 per cent from December 2022, much earlier than required, benefiting the colleagues who receive this at the earliest opportunity.”

Anyone who needs urgent housing advice can visit www.shelter.org.uk/get_help during the strike to see what they can access.