Charity work conditions

Unite general union has accused charities whose workers have to “sleep-in” of not paying the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for emergency work undertaken during residential shifts. It says up to 170,000 UK charities may be ignoring the law that says work in on-call time constitutes working time according to the Working Time Regulations 1998, and must be paid at NMW or above. Unite has published a briefing on residential work and asked for abuses to be reported. See: www.unitetheunion.com/sectors/community_youth_workers/resources/representatives_briefing_-_res.aspx.

Unite has also asked new public sector pay inquiry head Will Hutton to investigate pay differentials in the not-for-profit sector. Unite said there were organisations dependent on government income where chief executives exceeded the proposed 20:1 pay ratio. Unite cited Anchor Trust’s former chief executive, paid £391,000 in 2008-09, while many employees received wages just above the national minimum wage.