Staff at homeless charity St Mungo’s have been on strike for nine weeks over ‘poverty wages’ and what Unite the Union says is a ‘paltry’ pay offer of 3.7%
Toni is explaining how working at homeless charity St Mungo’s was once her dream job.
“I wanted to work for St Mungo’s for years because of what they stood for,” she says. “Without sounding too cheesy, I felt they were a fit for my core values â wanting to end homelessness, not supporting it.”
Yet for the last nine weeks, Toni and many of her frontline colleagues have been on strike over “poverty wages” and what Unite the Union says is a “paltry” pay offer of 3.7%.
“You’ve got the irony of people working with the homeless not being able to pay their rent,” Toni says. “It’s laughable really. I’ve had to cut back on things, and I’ve been suffering with my mental health quite badly since this all began. I’ve had to consider if I even want to carry on working there if that’s how little they think of us.”