Sage staff left with ‘no choice’ over strike

REPRESENTATIVES OF care workers at the Sage home in Golders Green claim they have been left “with no choice” but to strike after pay and conditions negotiations were “undermined”.

Staff want to be paid £12 an hour and to receive sick pay on a par with NHS workers. Last month, strike action was averted after management agreed to Acas-mediated talks.

Those talks were due to begin last Friday but did not take place. The United Voices of the World union, to which staff are affiliated, claimed trustees had refused to allow some union representatives to attend the meeting — and had made clear that they had “no intention of making settlement offers”.

Sage co-chair Stephen Goldberg countered that the union had proposed “that the meeting be attended by three full-time trade union officers plus another 12 Sage employees. Of those 12 employees, four were previously scheduled to work that morning.

“The trustees did not consider it necessary for those members of staff to miss their shifts, thereby leaving the home, their colleagues and the residents short-staffed. Doing so would also have incurred additional costs during this financially precarious time for Sage. The trustees advised Acas of their position early Thursday afternoon.

“At 10.20 Friday morning, UVW advised Acas that they would not be attending the meeting.

“Sage remains open to discussions with UVW.”

One staff member, Bile Ahouza, 42, said: “We are incredibly frustrated. All we are asking for is respect, dignity and equality. We deserve a living wage; we deserve full sick pay and a better holiday scheme.”

UVW spokesperson Molly de Dios Fisher claimed: “These workers have risked their lives in this pandemic and the way they are being treated is appalling.”

Mr Goldberg told the JC that trustees had “met separately with staff and disclosed fully the current financial difficulties that Sage is facing. The staff were understanding of the situation and, together with the trustees, look forward to an end to the pandemic and Sage returning to full occupancy.”

The dispute came to wider attention after one care worker, Andrene Williams, attracted around 70,000 signatures to a change.org petition.

All we are asking for is respect, dignity and equality’