I haven’t posted about the Shelter staff dispute until now, partly because I was hoping it would be resolved and partly because I had little to add.
I have been prodded into posting by a comment by Mark P. As he observes, Shelter management are in the vanguard of the NfP sector in ‘ensuring competitiveness’ in the chase for future competitive bidding for LSC franchises. Shelter’s management rather disingenuously argue that as the frontline services are the major recipient of state funding, it is frontline services that should bear the brunt of the ‘efficiencies’ (link goes to a .doc, courtesy of Nik Nicol).
What Shelter are doing today will inevitably be a model or rationale for the NfP sector (and quite possibly private firms as well). It is therefore of much broader significance than ‘just’ Shelter, if that wasn’t enough.
After 2 days of strikes (4 and 10 March), things have clearly got nasty, with tales of high pressure individual interviews pushing the new contracts under threat of dismissal.
But there is still amusement to be had. Witness Adam Sampson, Shelter CEO, claiming support, via a link, to be found in a post by Bridget Fox, Lib Dem candidate for Islington South. Then note that Fox’s post doesn’t offer support for Shelter management, it just opposes Ken Loach’s call to stop donations. Next, observe Fox backing frantically away from having to say anything contentious in the comments to the post as she is confronted by a couple of Shelter staffers explaining the dispute and highlighting heavy-handed treatment by management.
It appears that this was the most supportive link that Mr Sampson could find.