Paltry pay award for Cornerstone highlights
funding crisis in the Voluntary Sector
Financial constraints amongst voluntary sector providers has meant
that UNISON has had to reluctantly accept a 1.5% pay award for our
members working in Cornerstone.
The branch held a consultative ballot of members which showed that
almost 70% of those voting wanted to reject the offer. However,
as less than one in three members voted this was not seen as a mandate
for action, leading to the decision to reluctantly accept the employer's
offer.
289 letters were issued of which 94 were returned. Of those voting,
69% wanted to reject the offer with 31% voting to accept. This did
not persuade Cornerstone management to change its mind and increase
the offer on the table. They wrote to the branch explaining their
position and the need, for the job security of their employees,
to hold to their original offer.
"We have to accept that whilst we have a respectable number of
members in Cornerstone, these are patchy across the organisation,"
said Bob Revie, Branch Secretary, urging members in Cornerstone
to set about recruiting others into membership. "With further challenges
in the future, UNISON will be better placed to represent our members
if the membership was higher," he added.
This situation has highlighted once again the impact on staff and
the quality of service in the voluntary and community sector of
how such services are funded by central and local government. UNISON
Scotland has been central, via the STUC, to getting agreement between
the voluntary sector and trade unions on a set of campaigning points
to take to the Scottish Government and CoSLA.
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