Huge pay cuts
The 170 plus members of Unite, employed by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), have seen their pay cut by 21.7 per cent in recent years, as a result of a series of pay freezes and below inflation pay increases. The housing association was hived off from Rochdale council and manages 13,500 homes.Unite members have rejected a below inflation pay offer of two per cent. However, rather than return to the negotiating table RBH instead imposed the pay offer on the staff, which has caused widespread anger and damaged industrial relations.
Balloting to begin
Workers will begin balloting for industrial action, including strike action on Wednesday 8 May and the ballot will close on Wednesday 29 May. If the membership votes for industrial action, strikes could begin in June.No real terms pay cut
Unite regional officer Tanya Sweeney said: “Members of Unite will not accept a further real terms pay cut. Year on year workers have been getting poorer.“Industrial relations have been further damaged by the ham-fisted manner in which the management at RBH has gone about responding to the dispute. Rather than return to negotiations, they instead imposed the offer, which has just caused further ill feeling among staff.
“If RBH wants to avoid strike action then it needs to return to the negotiating table with an offer which at least begins to meet our members’ expectations.”
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RBH are ignoring its staff. Members of UNISON and UNITE voted to reject the pay offer, but RBH ignored this and imposed the pay award without further negotiation. Workers & residents are the company’s greatest asset, but RBH are taking their hard-work for granted.
In 2017/18, RBH made a profit of £16.3m (an increase of 3.2%)
Profit before pension adjustment of £19.4m (a whopping £6m improvement on the original budget)
Reserves up 27% to £88.7m and income up 48% to £19.1m
Profit per employee of £28,496 (this represents an increase of 6% on the previous year)
RBH operating budgets assume a salary increase of 3.2% (so why are you only getting 2%?)
Highest paid director received £143,000—including a whopping £22k in pensions contributions
Last year, RBH spent over £480k on agency workers - they are far from living in penury - unlike many of their current tenants !
RBH is prioritising greed over social need and is therefore failing catastrophically as a social need housing provider . Just speak to some of their residents in College Bank & Lower Falinge where RBH demolition plans have all the early warning signs of yet another national scandal putting Rochdale on the map for all of the wrong reasons yet again !
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