A charity’s primary aim should be to carry out its charitable objectives. But a well run charity – the kind we’d all want to be part of and to support – is one that takes care of its staff too.
Well-run charities don’t treat their staff with contempt by imposing miniscule pay rises on them without negotiation, and yet that’s exactly what Action for Children has done recently. As a result, staff at the charity have voted to take industrial action.
That decision will have been a very difficult one for the employees who are committed to their jobs and the people they care for. It demonstrates the strength of feeling among them.
We are determined to resolve this dispute – strike action should be and is always an absolute last resort.
And yet senior managers at Action for Children have acted in a high-handed way. Charity workers are dedicated to looking after children and families, and want their employer to start to see sense and begin to listen.
We’ll be calling on all of those who work with the charity – their trustees, local authorities who support them and celebrity supporters – to take a look at what is being done in their name and to their charity.
It is not too late to treat staff – who have given so much – with the respect they deserve, and to negotiate with them in good faith. By doing so, a strike that nobody wants can be averted, and Action for Children workers who care so much about the charity can stay at work.
