Showing posts with label Howard Sinclair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Howard Sinclair. Show all posts

12 August 2023

St Mungo’s is a Homeless Charity Whose CEO Emma Haddad Gets More than £200,000 a Year Whilst Its Workers Are Facing Homelessness!

 Support St Mungo’s Workers  Don’t Allow This Corporate Charity to Break the Strike With Agency Scabs

Strike Rally on August 10th

Last Thursday I attended a mass rally in support of the St Mungo’s strikers outside their plush headquarters in East London, located near luxury yachts and St Katharine Docks. There were hundreds of supporters there and a fierce determination to ensure that the trustees and management, who almost all come from the corporate and financial sector, are not allowed to break a strike of low paid workers.

Please Give Generously to St Mungo’s Strike Fund here

Cheques payable to Unite Housing Workers LE/1111 Branch

or send money to

Unite Housing Workers LE/1111 Branch

Reference St Mungos Hardship fund

Account number: 20040626

Sort code: 608301

Emma Haddad, their Chief Executive Officer, was on £189K according to their last accounts. St Mungo’s has refused to divulge her current salary so we can be certain that she is now receiving over £200K a year, that is 10 times more than St Mungo’s low paid workers.

Haddad has absolutely no experience of the third sector, still less homelessness. She has come from the Home Office where, by all accounts, she had an appalling record.

Whilst the strike has been on St Mungo’s have appointed a Transformation Director, Sean Palmer, also from the Home Office. There seems to be a revolving door between the Home Office and St Mungo’s.

The job was advertised as starting at £130,000 but it is understood that Palmer  negotiated closer to £160,000. It is the usual story. More money for the rich whilst telling its workers they have no money left for them.


Rally at St Mungo's HQ

Palmer was previously involved in the Napier barracks scandal whereby asylum seekers were unlawfully detained and when at the Ministry of Justice he was involved in the shutting down of 100 courts thus creating a massive backlog in people having their cases heard.

Haddad, their CEO, and Palmer oversaw deathly and inhumane accommodation at the Home Office for refugees.  How one wonders are they appropriate for running homelessness accommodation?

Unite lead officer Onay Kasab speaking at the St Mungos strike rally 

As for the trustees, they are almost all are from corporate accounts and finance backgrounds with barely any homelessness experience between them.

True to form these corporate scoundrels first attempted to break the strike using agency staff. When the High Court outlawed that particular practice they decided to hurriedly appointing appoint temps to permanent posts, at great expense, to try and break the strike. What is clear is that this is not about  money but the viciously anti-union and anti-worker mentality of those who occupy corporate boardrooms.

Rally at  St Mungo's HQ

St Mungo’s strikers have been on strike since the end of May. They are currently on week 11. Their demand is for a 10% pay rise for all.

None of this has stopped St Mungo's PR boasting that ‘we’re all united in our values and our aim of ending homelessness.’  So who are what they call their  Team Members?

Rally at St Mungo's HQ

Who Are St Mungo’s Executive Directors?

Emma Haddad, the Chief Executive Officer comes directly from the Home Office where she was responsible for housing for asylum seekers and refugees and before that she worked for the DWP and before that ‘working with EU partners on the migration and asylum agenda.’ Implementing racist migration and asylum policies is her forte

David Fisher - The only Executive Director with any experience in the housing field

David Fisher, the Executive Director of Services, previously worked in three London based charities; Single Homeless Project; Housing Services Agency and Broadway.

Jonathan Manuel - his experience of drink is no doubt invaluable in helping the homeless to become addicted to alcohol

Jonathan Manuel, the Executive Director of Finance, has spent most of his career to date at FTSE 100 drinks company Diageo. Clearly he is well qualified to work for St Mungo’s.

Joanna Killian - no experience in housing but plenty as a partner of crooked accountants KPMG - St Mungo's favourite company

Who are the Trustees?

Well Joanna Killian, who is – Chair of Trustees, is Chief Executive of Surrey County Council. Before that she was a Partner and Head of Local Government and Devolution at crooked accountants KPMG LLP, who seem a favoured company with St Mungo’s.

Rolande Anderson

Then there is Rolande Anderson, who is following a senior career in the civil service. Rolande is Vice Chair at London Metropolitan University and an Associate of the College of Policing. Handy experience if you are dealing with vagrants as the Police term the homeless.

Alexander Beidas - commercial lawyer

There is Alexandra Beidas, who as a commercial lawyer and Global Head of Employment and Incentives at Linklaters, a big city solicitors, has a wealth of experience walking past the homeless each day.

Rob Bradshaw

Not forgetting Rob Bradshaw who is currently Client Director at Gate One, a digital and business transformation consultancy. He has previously worked as a management consultant for PwC and KPMG (again).

Dan Corry - Vulture Capitalist - Gone Missing - Please Report if Spotted

And another housing and homelessness expert is Dan Corry, who seems to have gone missing since the beginning of the strike. Dan is also Chief Executive of New Philanthropy Capital, having held a variety of posts in public policy and economics including as Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister on the Economy from 2007 to 2010.

Darren Johnson - Asset Stripper - Another Trustee Gone Missing

Darren Johnson is another trustee who has gone missing since the dispute began. As Chief Operating Officer at Impax Asset Management, Darren adds to the roster of housing experts at St Mungo’s. Impax Asset specialises in investing in companies involved in the transition to a more sustainable economy. Prior to this Darren was Head of Operations at Talisman Global Asset Management.

Lorraine Mealings

Lorraine Mealings is one of the few who doesn’t have a corporate finance background. Not that she has any experience of homelessness. Lorraine joined BCHA, a housing association as Chief Executive in November 2022 and prior to that was Director of Housing at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

Philip Moore’s qualifications to sit on the board of a homeless charity are unquestioned. His background is as a finance professional. His most recent full-time role being Group Finance Director with the Liverpool Victoria Financial Services Ltd, which he held until 2017. Philip is an experienced non-executive within both the third and private sectors and includes appointments with North Hertfordshire College, Skipton Building Society and the real estate company, Connells.

The Elusive Teddy Nyahasha

Not forgetting of course the elusive Teddy Nyahasha, who is Brighton based. Teddy too brings a wealth of experience to a homeless charity as the CEO of OneFamily, the UK’s third largest mutual, which is based in West Street, Brighton. Teddy previously held a series of high-profile roles within start-ups and global multi-billion-pound household names such as Ernst & Young, Aviva and Royal London as well as working as a specialist adviser at the FSA.

Teddy is a qualified Chartered Accountant, a Certified Financial Risk Manager and has an MBA from the London Business School.

The elusive Darren Johnson

Teddy is however shy by nature which is why, when strikers have come down to his office to demonstrate he has refused to come out and speak to them. Quite understandable in the circumstances. As one striker told me:

He is a trustee of the organisation. They say they are transparent, but when we try to speak to the trustees we are either ignored or referred back to St Mungo’s CEO. If he doesn’t want to be involved in the work of the organisation why is he a trustee. 

It is a good question and the answer is not hard to find. Charity is the conscience of the rich. Doing ‘good works’ is a way of compensating for the day to day business of exploiting their workers. Being a trustee of a charity is a good way for corporations and their executives to demonstrate how caring they are. It is all about PR and branding.


Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith too is more than acquainted with the homeless. He was a Board and Executive Director of the National Audit Office from 2015 to 2020. Prior to this, he was a partner with KPMG (clearly a favourite spawning ground for St Mungo’s) where he provided restructuring advice to governments and banks, and led KPMG’s European Transaction Services mergers and acquisitions support business. Restructuring is finance jargon for sacking people and getting those remaining to do more work for the same pay.

Helen Walters - the odd one out who isn't a financial parasite though she is complicit in forcing sick people to work

Then there is Dr Helen Walters who is indeed an odd fish. She comes with no financial or asset stripping experience. Instead she is a doctor specialising in Public Health and John Watts too doesn’t seem to have the requisite City experience being an award winning writer, musician and actor.

Mariam Sani

Not forgetting of course the Independent Committee Member, Mariam Sani, whose background according to her bio is in the affordable housing sector. She initially worked for a law firm before moving to a Registered Provider. Before you get too worried, we are assured that Mariam has over 15 years of experience in the niche area of securitisation/property charging and her skills range across to governance and risk, being responsible for the Asset & Liabilities Register and Insurance within her current role as a Head of Securitisation and Asset Control at Legal & General Affordable Homes. One suspects that her experience of affordable homes, at least to the homeless is strictly limited.

John Watts - one of only 2 Trustees with no expertise in dodgy finance - it's a mystery what he's doing on the trustee board unless he is someone's crony

These are the potted bios of the current board of trustees and they help explain why it is that St Mungo’s has chosen to break the strike rather than pay a living wage.

Brighton Mungo's strike leaflet 2020

The current strike at St Mungo’s is not the first you will be pleased to hear. In March 2020 workers went on strike against what I called at the time a ‘Dickensian Employer’.

St Mungo’s was trying to reduce the number of experienced, higher paid staff in favour of junior staff who were less well paid. I asked then 'What employer wants to sack employees with experience other than one for whom providing a service to clients means less than cutting costs?'

St Mungo's strike picket 2020

Staff told me of a ‘reign of terror’ in which workers were afraid to go off sick because people who got sick also got dismissed. So the staff started to book their time off sick as leave.


Working with the Home Office to Deport Migrants

St Mungo’s first came to my attention when some of its outreach workers were found to be passing on information to the Home Office about which homeless migrants they could deport.

Immigration enforcement staff accompanied outreach workers in London before the High Court ruled the policy of deporting homeless migrants from the EU was unlawful.

Brighton rally in support of the 2020 Mungo's strike

At first St Mungo’s simply lied and denied everything. It was only after had been found out that it was forced to apologise. As the Public Interest Law Centre stated:

“The findings of St Mungo’s internal review have vindicated the work of migrants and homeless rights campaigners who have spent years trying to hold the charity to account for collaborating with immigration enforcement in the detention and deportation of homeless people,”

“St Mungo’s has admitted misleading the press, campaigners and, most importantly, rough sleepers about the way they worked with the Home Office.

I asked ‘What Kind of Homeless Charity is it which Works with the Home Office to Deport Homeless Migrants? Step Forward Howard Sinclair – their £160,000 union busting CEO.’

Sinclair accidentally sent an email to a Unite official in which he wrote:

‘No need to change tac (sic). Our strategy should be to…stop more people joining and erode support.’

Sinclair was running a union busting operation. Despite this St Mungo’s claimed that 'We actively encourage our staff to join the union of their choice'. They really have no shame.

Rally at  St Mungo's HQ

However according to the Telegraph it was all previous Unite General Secretary Len McLuskey’s fault: ‘Homelesses charity accuses Len McCluskey of putting lives at risk with strike’

Tony Greenstein

See St Mungo’s strike in the media

Staff at a homelessness charity are holding a ‘mega rally’ against their toxic bosses - (The Canary)

 

Posted by at 7 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

17 March 2020

St Mungo’s Strikers Need Your Support in their Battle against a Dickensian Employer


What Kind of Homeless Charity is it which Works with the Home Office to Deport Homeless Migrants? Step Forward Howard Sinclair – their £160,000 union busting CEO

 Today saw the first of a 3 day strike by Unite workers at St Mungo’s, Britain’s largest homelessness charity. Workers in Brighton, Bristol and London joined the strike after an 83.7% yes vote in a strike ballot.
4 of the 6 pickets allowed
In my experience, as a former UNISON Convenor for the Voluntary Sector I can testify that some of the worst employers are in the charitable and voluntary sector. They are some of the most devious and dishonest employers. Both my major whistleblowing cases were against charities and housing associations.
Union busting boss of St Mungo's -  Howard Sinclair on £160,000 - he currently has coronavirus - one can only hope he does as his staff do and take time off sick as holiday pay
Despite playing on the fact that they don’t make a profit (instead they just have highly paid Executives like St. Mungo’s Sinclair) they hae the same managerial attitudes in addition to preying on workers’ sense of loyalty and service obligation in order to extract unpaid work and service.
Strikes in the voluntary sector are very rare and the fact that St. Mungo’s staff voted by some 6-1 to strike testifies to the behaviour of their management. Not that you have guessed this from the lying defence of St. Mungo’s management.
Braving Coronavirus I joined the early morning picket of St. Mungo’s at Isetta Square in Brighton. There I met a large group of young, mainly female strikers with strike teeshirts bearing slogans such as
Val Mainstone from Defend NHS speaking at the rally
‘Punished for being Sick’‘We Support Not Deport’ ‘St. Mungo’s – Stop the Race to the Bottom’.
When setting out I looked online for reports on the strike and I alighted on the Torygraph, a paper not usually known for its sympathy for the homeless, the unemployed or anyone else down on their luck. Today however was different. Their headline pulled no punches.  They were moved to tears by the plight of the homeless. It was all the fault of ‘hard left’ Len McLuskey: ‘Homelesses charity accuses Len McCluskey of putting lives at risk with strike’.
It reminded me of all those ‘newspapers’ which wept crocodile tears over ‘anti-Semitism’ whilst employing neo-Nazi Katie Hopkins, spewing her venom about refugees being cockroaches.
Who would have thought that the Telegraph, which has supported benefit cuts and sanctions, council house sales and the abolition of rent controls whilst championing Thatcher’s scrapping of security of tenure for tenants, could suddenly be overcome with concern for the homeless? It was the equivalent of Paul being blinded by the light on the road to Damascus.
‘Britain’s biggest homelesses charity has accused the hard left union boss Len McCluskey of putting vulnerable lives at risk by pressing ahead with a strike during the coronavirus pandemic.’
As is normal with the Telegraph there was no attempt to put the strikers’ case, so you won’t be surprised.
The Guardian’s coverage was more sympathetic although its sub-head ‘UK’s biggest homeless charity criticises timing of three-day protest during pandemic’ bore shades of its anti-Corbyn alliance with the Tory press. But at least it covered the scandalous use of St. Mungo’s outreach workers in passing on information about homeless migrants to the Home Office. Indeed immigration enforcement staff actually accompanied some outreach workers in London before the High Court ruled the policy of deporting homeless migrants unlawful.
Tony Greenstein and Liz holding the Trades Council banner

Matt Webb of the Trades Council speaking
At first St. Mungo’s simply lied and denied everything. It was only after had been found out that it was forced to apologise.  Notwithstanding this the practice still continued. As the Public Interest Law Centre stated:
“This apology is long overdue. The findings of St Mungo’s internal review have vindicated the work of migrants and homeless rights campaigners who have spent years trying to hold the charity to account for collaborating with immigration enforcement in the detention and deportation of homeless people,”
“St Mungo’s has admitted misleading the press, campaigners and, most importantly, rough sleepers about the way they worked with the Home Office. The damage done in terms of trust may well be irreparable

If CEO Howard Sinclair had any integrity he would have offered his resignation for the lies and deception. Instead St. Mungo’s PR prefers to ignore uncomfortable truths by simply not mentioning that they operated in the best of Gestapo and Stasi traditions. Howard’s £160,000 salary clearly outweighs trivia like ethics. 
You won’t be surprised that a racist charity which informs on those it is supposed to be helping is also vehemently anti-union. St. Mungo’s threatened to go to court to obtain an injunction against Unite for a leaflet which invites people to join the strike picket. Legislation limits the numbers to 6 and by inviting other people to join it they are therefore acting unlawfully. You would have thought that a homeless charity had better things to do with its funds.
Sinclair is not only a reactionary boss but an incompetent one too. He accidentally sent an email to a Unite official, as well as the employees of BLJ London, a PR consultancy, in which he wrote:
‘No need to change tac (sic). Our strategy should be to…stop more people joining and erode support.’ 
Demonstration of workers at St Mungo's is forced to stand on the opposite of the road to avoid breaking anti-union legislation on having 6 pickets as a maximum
Sinclair was running a union busting operation. This however didn’t find its way into the Telegraph or Guardian. Despite this St Mungo’s have the audacity to claim that 'We actively encourage our staff to join the union of their choice' -

Unite held two ballots. The first failed by 1 vote to reach the 50% threshold that anti-union legislation demands. After the revelations of union busting the second ballot easily reached the threshold and there was a massive 83.7% vote in favour.

Other issues in the strike include Junior Staff Capping and Sick Pay.  St Mungo’s is trying to reduce the number of experienced, higher paid staff in favour of junior staff who are less well paid. In order to do this they have torn up previous agreements. What employer wants to sack employees with experience other than one for whom providing a service to clients means less than cutting costs.
Staff told me of the ‘reign of terror’, their words not mine, in which people are afraid to go off sick because there is a very rapid escalation from Stage 1 to 3 in which people who get sick get dismissed. So when they get sick they book it in as leave. You won’t learn that from St. Mungo’s Press Releases
UCU speaker
At the rally today at the Clock Tower in Brighton’s centre there was a good turnout with representatives from UCU, who themselves have been on strike recently, CWU, also balloting for strike action against Royal Mail, UNISON, Unite and the Trades Council.  It was unfortunate that despite being advertised as speaking Kemptown Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle wasn’t there and nor was Caroline Lucas, the Pavilion Green MP.  No one of course would have expected Peter Kyle, ‘Labour’ MP for Hove to attend since he is to the right of most Tory MPs.
CWU speaker
Anti-union legislation must be broken
What is clear is that the problems that have faced the CWU postal workers and now St. Mungo’s workers are the Thatcherite anti-union legislation which ties the workers hands behind their backs. Bosses can do whatever they want but workers have their hands tied behind their backs if they want to respond. Strike ballots have to reach a threshold. If they walk out on unofficial strike they can be legally dismissed. The strike mandate only lasts 6 months. As the CWU’s recent ballot, which achieved a 97% yes vote showed, the Courts will step in to prevent the democratic will of workers on the most absurd of legal technicalities. The High Court used an obscure provision in the legislation to rule that ballots can’t be filled in at work.
Tomorrow and Wednesday are further strike days for St Mungo’s. People will be gathering at Brighton’s Clock Tower at 11 am. 
Please be there!
Below is an article from Counterfire on  what led up to the strike.

Workers at St Mungo's are beginning strike action after management continues to prioritise cost-efficiency over services or working conditions

There is now a complete breakdown of trust between executive team, and the frontline workers in particular, many of whom are on low pay, and have felt they have been left with no choice other than too withdraw their labour at significant personal cost. To have their collective voice ignored and minimised in the way it has been, with the board undermining and attempting to discredit the union membership, has been the ultimate insult in a series of insults.
Since the last strikes in 2014, which were over an attempt at cutting pay for frontline staff whilst at the same time increasing pay for senior management, the contrast between the ethics of the organisation's leadership and the workers has grown ever more pronounced. This decay was epitomised by the sharing of information with the Home Office which ultimately led to the unlawful deportation of rough sleepers. St. Mungo’s executives were repeatedly warned about this unethical practice by their staff via Unite, however, they denied sharing any data. The leadership team have since been forced to admit they had misled the press, campaigners and rough sleepers about having collaborated with the Home Office, proving themselves to be the absolute antithesis to those working on the ground.
Controversies such as this and the squandering of £42,000 of charity money on a communications company in an attempt to discredit the union have contributed to a general distrust of the motives and decisions being made by the executive team. Within this context, the material issues that have driven this dispute - a harsh disciplinary procedure that has disproportionately affected BAME workers; a punitive sickness policy and attempts to change the junior staffing cap - have left staff concerned for their jobs, their terms and conditions and importantly for the quality of service provision for vulnerable people.
Britain’s biggest homelesses charity has accused the hard left union boss Len McCluskey of putting vulnerable lives at risk by pressing ahead with a strike during the coronavirus pandemic.
The email states that there is “no need to change tac (sic)”. It adds:  “Our strategy should be to…stop more people joining and erode support”.
The union has accused Sinclair of discouraging staff from joining the union and anti trade union tactics. The charity said staff are actively encouraged to join the union of their choice. 
Recently St Mungo’s has faced a number of controversies, including issues surrounding the charity’s outreach teams sharing information with the Home Office. Delay by the executive team at St Mungo’s meant that one of the charity's outreach teams failed to cease sharing data with the Home Office without consent, an internal review by the charity revealed.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)