“I am writing to tell you of a bad experience in the workplace,” begins the letter from a UNISON member. She’s asked to remain anonymous as she’s scared of what her company would do if they knew she’d been in touch.
She’s in her sixties and an NVQ-qualified nursing assistant who’s been with the same company for several years. She works 30 hours a week, two full nights and one short day for the minimum wage of £6.50 an hour.
She earns enough to get by, but not enough to save for the tough times that came when earlier this year her partner died from cancer.
“Losing him was bad enough,” she explains, but the three days leave she took to grieve and to plan and attend his funeral, along with problems with her housing benefit, left her unable to cope financially.
In spite of her seven years’ service during which time she was “never late for work and hardly ever off sick” her work refused to pay her compassionate leave. This left her worrying about how to pay the rent, as she explains, “it has caused a lot of stress when you least need it.”
Her boss’s attitude was “if you don’t like it there is the door.”
On top of her grief she felt “angry and insulted” at the “unbelievable and inhumane” treatment as well as “sad and depressed.”
Luckily, UNISON was able to help. A small grant of £120 meant that she was able to pay her rent. Along with help from her family and friends it helped tide her over.
She’s thankful for the help she received but says “I hope things will change some day.”
Hers was one of over 4,000 cases that UNISON’s charity There for You responded to last year. The charity was set up to help members and their families in financial difficulties.
This help includes:
- Small grants: Thousands of members and their families have benefited from our support every year. In addition the charity operates two programmes for members on low incomes – one for winter fuel, the other for school uniforms.
- UNISON debtline: A free, impartial and confidential debt advice service provided in partnership with Payplan, who are experts in helping people in financial difficulty.
- Credit unions: A new and unique network of 40 credit unions to help low-paid members tackle debt.
- Wellbeing breaks: These can include family holidays, get well breaks, breaks for a carer or following bereavement.
We’ll also always campaign nationally for the government to alleviate the financial worries of millions of workers by negotiating decent pay for our members, speaking up for a living wage and arguing for social security that supports those most in need.
For more information on how we can help, go to unison.org.uk/get-help.