No charity shown to Unite

The Unite general union has accused the Samaritans charity of derecognising it, after the charity claimed that the recognition agreement “does not reflect the nature of our working relationship”.

Regional officer Jamie Major said: “It is highly suspicious that Unite was informed that management wants to make sweeping changes to policies and procedures, and then derecognised the rights of staff to have an independent trade union in the same breath.”

The union is consulting its members about the action they might take if management failed to return to the negotiation table.

The charity denied it was derecognising Unite, but said it wanted a new agreement that “accurately reflects the needs of the organisation in the context of the number of staff that are members of the union, which we believe to be quite low“.

Meanwhile, entertainment union BECTU is continuing its campaign for recognition at Curzon Cinemas. It said almost three-quarters of staff had signed its petition for recognition and that it had “recruited members in large numbers”. However, the company is refusing to recognise the union voluntarily. The workforce is poorly paid and often on zero-hours contracts.

The GMB general union has achieved some recognition success, however, for staff at two Zest care homes in Birmingham. The union has re-established recognition on behalf of the staff, who are former employees of now defunct care homes giant Southern Cross.