Report on yesterdays demostration at Lion Court

Demonstrators assemble in front of Lion Court

Yesterday (30/3/12) support workers were joined by supporters from around Merseyside in holding a demonstration at Lion Court, Alternative Futures Group’s head office.

Prior to the demo, AFG took out an injunction against Unison, claiming that the demonstration was tatamount to unofficial industrial action. This exceptionally silly claim led to the absurd situation of Unison being legally obligated to attempt to cancel a demonstration that it didn’t call for or organise. Support workers from Liverpool also report that management again threatened support workers with dismissal, this time if they appeared at a peaceful protest about their terms and conditions. Despite this, around 40 support workers and our supporters assembled at Lion Court for the demonstration as planned.

We arrived to find that AFG had taken the bizarre step of barricading off the building, hiring security and requesting a police presence, presumably frightened that we might storm the building and occupy it, despite a total absence of evidence that we had any plans to do so. One wonders how much these excessive security measures cost the company that claims to be in serious danger of bankruptcy.

AFG's "hand of choice", fenced off in order to protect it from non-existent threats

After assembling in front of the building, which appeared to have been completely closed for the day in preparation for the demo, we decided to march around Kings Business Park, at which point a van full of police appeared and pulled up outside Lion Court. When questioned police were unable to provide any good reason for being there and left shortly afterwards, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Protesters gathered in front of police van

After this, the demonstration moved to the verge outside Kings Business Park, where passing motorists beeped their horns in support. We remained there until shortly before 3pm, when we left to attend a somewhat lively Unison AGM.

All in all, yesterday’s demonstration was a success, showing AFG that we will not be intimidated and that we do not stand alone, we need to continue taking action to keep the pressure up.

Alternative Futures Pay Cuts – Demonstration 30/3/12 at Lion Court

Support workers facing pay cuts at the hands of Alternative Futures Group need your solidarity. On Friday the 30^th of March a Unison branch AGM will be held at AFG’s head office, Lion Court (in Kings Business Centre, Prescott, L34 1BN), AFG support workers are calling for a demonstration against pay cuts outside the building from 1pm till 3pm.

If you can’t make the demonstration, please consider calling or e-mailing Alternative Futures Group during the demonstration and letting them know that you oppose the pay cuts they are imposing on us.

Contact details for head office are:

Tel 0151 489 5501
Fax 0151 481 4818

Email: mail@alternativefuturesgroup.org.uk

Neil Campbell (Chief executive of AFG): Neil.campbell@alternativefuturesgroup.org.uk

Gill Dolan (Director of Operations): Gill.dolan@alternativefuturesgroup.org.uk

You may want to ask why Alternative Futures Group is cutting the pay of its lowest paid employees while continuing to pay Chief Executive Neil Campbell over ten times the wage of a support worker (in excess of £140,000 per year) in salary and an undisclosed sum in bonuses, why AFG’s Human Resources department have been making repeated threats of dismissal against support workers who speak out against the company or why a charity that, according its own accounts, ended the last financial year with a budget surplus of £15 million now claims to be at risk of going bankrupt if it doesn’t cut £5.1 million from it’s budget.

Facebook event for this demonstration

Alternative Futures Group pay cuts – AFG and TUPE’d staff need to stand together

TUPE'd staff at a meeting in the Oaks Hotel in Burnley last week let Neil Campbell know exactly what they think.

Since the first article on this blog about pay cuts by the Alternative Futures Group (AFG), we’ve been contacted by support workers who have been TUPE transferred after AFG took over NHS and local authority contracts. Terms and conditions amongst TUPE’d staff vary, but some TUPE’d staff have estimated that once a 25% cut in basic hourly rate and the removal of unsocial hours enhancements is taken into account, TUPE’d staff will suffer a pay cut of around 30-40%. This will leave many of these support workers with a huge decrease in income which could put many of them in danger of losing their homes or facing bankruptcy as they are unable to keep up with payment schemes they had agreed to before AFG took over their workplaces and threatened to slash their pay.

One anonymous TUPE’d support worker from Lancashire said:

“They want to cut our wage by £7000 per year before tax (this is by reducing our hourly rate by 25% and not paying weekend rates , night rates or any unsociable hours), also they propose that we work 2.5 hrs a week more, that we give up over 2 weeks holiday entitlement a year and that any sick pay benefits we have are given up “

Some AFG support workers have attacked TUPE’d staff as being too well-paid or being responsible for pay cuts in general. This is misguided and dangerous. Staff on NHS terms and conditions have, historically, been better paid than those on private sector terms and conditions because they have stood up for themselves and fought. We should be working together with TUPE’d staff to raise our terms and conditions, not collaborating with management in a race to the bottom.

Many TUPE’d staff have shown a willingness to stand with us and fight against these attacks by AFG’s management together, it would be madness to spurn this offer.