24.10.16
EHRC staff prepare to go on strike over 25% budget cuts
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the body tasked with upholding workers’ rights as part of its remit, is itself facing a strike on Wednesday as staff jobs are due to go following spending cuts.
The strikes are led by Unite and the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union after staff were threatened with compulsory redundancies as a result of 25% budget cuts.
The PCS said that, despite the body’s remit to promote equality and human rights, 19 of the first 26 posts to be cut were in the three lowest paid grades, meaning they were disproportionately likely to affect elderly, disabled and ethnic minority staff.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: “The commission is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultants while getting rid of low paid staff who provide daily support to victims of discrimination.
“It is sickening that as division and hate are being fostered in our communities in the wake of the Brexit vote, this Tory government is cutting the staff whose job it is to combat this.”
Staff will go on strike on 26 October, with a programme of non-strike industrial action due to begin the following day.
The unions, which represent three-quarters of the 190 commission staff, said further strikes could take place in the future.
They said the spending cuts could threaten the EHRC’s United Nations ‘A’ status as a national human rights institution, and urged it to save money by cutting the £1.2m it paid to non-payroll consultants last year.
PSE contacted the EHRC for a comment, but it did not respond at the time of publication.
(Image: EHRC workers stage a protest in 2011. C. Dave Thomson from PA Archive and PA Images)
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