Metropolitan Housing: Poverty Pay, Pay Offs and Predistribution

NO PROGRESS IN METROPOLITAN CONSULTATION MEETINGS

A series of cost-cutting proposals presented to UNISON by Metropolitan housing association have been firmly rejected by the union’s members.

Metropolitan are conducting a 90 day consultation on changes to the terms and conditions of its 887 staff who are employed as Care and Support workers. The proposals include the reduction of staff salaries by up to 40%; reducing the number of job roles from 44 to 4, introducing flexible contracts and reducing management and administration posts.

Controversially, a private consultant’s report presented to the Metropolitan Board in December 2011 recommended employing more low-paid, part time staff “who could supplement their income by claiming working tax credits”.

If implemented, the proposed salary cuts will slash the wages of front line staff to below that of the GLA’s recommended London Living Wage. Metropolitan’s 2011/12 Financial Statement revealed that the former chief executive, Bill Payne, received a record payout of £412,000 in 2011.

UNISON’s Housing Associations’ Branch Secretary, John Gray, commented: “The hypocrisy of Metropolitan’s position is absolutely staggering. It pays £412,000 to honour the employment contracts of a departing chief executive yet wants to rip up the contracts of hundreds of frontline staff in order to impose wage cuts of up to 40%”.

UNISON Regional Organiser, Colin Inniss stated: “our members at Metropolitan are very angry about this and rightly so. Unless the Board sees sense and reconsiders its proposals we are heading for a serious dispute.

For Further information or comment please contact:

UNISON Housing Associations Branch Secretary, John Gray j.gray2@unison.co.uk
UNISON Regional Organiser, Colin Inniss or C.Inniss@unison.co.uk

Notes for Editors

1. Metropolitan manages 36,000 homes and provides housing and other services to 80,000 customers. In 2011/12 it made an operating surplus of £65.4M on a turnover of £244M.

2. Brian Johnson, formerly of Moat, has recently been appointed chief executive of Metropolitan.

3. UNISON’s Housing Association Branch represents 3,500 members in the Greater London Region and the South East.

The London Living Wage is designed to help people towards a minimum acceptable quality of life in our capital. It is calculated by the Greater London Authority and is currently £8.30

(This is from branch press release. I brought this matter up at our West Ham GC meeting last night with our MP Lyn Brown)

Metropolitan Housing CEO £412k payoff while carers wages to be decimated

I'm on route to Labour Party conference and still fuming from yesterday’s news. Metropolitan Housing Association has announced that its former CEO, Bill Payne, was paid £412,000 last year.  At the same time as its front line care and health workers have been threatened with 30% pay cuts. According to Inside Housing this is the biggest ever payout. He was only in post for 4 years.

Staff who care for the disabled and mentally ill are going to be paying the price for this greed and incompetence. Who on earth agreed these terms? Ironically Metropolitan are also planning to reduce redundancy payments to near the legal minimum. Someone over age 41 on £20k would get say £2000 if laid off, Payne gets £209k. One law for the Directors and another for everyone else.

This is a registered charity that is even planning to sack full time workers in order to employ part timers at rubbish money since they could have their wages boosted by Government tax credits. Such behaviours are simply vile in any organisation but this is not G4S but one which claims to be “socially responsible”. Ed Miliband talks sense about “Predistribution” and increasing the pay of the low paid.  Labour must oppose this race to the gutter.

This is all just unbelievable and shows that some (not all) Housing Associations are completely out of control, ungoverned and corrupted with rotten practises. This is destroying the reputation of the whole sector. Lets fact it, many remuneration committees are just "mates clubs". Advised by consultants who know they have stuff the mouths of their clients (the Senior Management team and Chairs) with money or they will be fired. How can the excuse of always being in the top 25% quartile of pay not be anything but a means to ratchet up SMT pay?

For a while now I have been going to Labour Party conferences and asking first Labour Housing ministers, now shadow ministers, what are they going to do about poor governance and excessive executive pay in Housing Associations?  This year I hope lots of delegates do the same. Enough with the waffle. No government or Council money nor contracts should be given to organisations who act in this way.  We need a commitment to properly regulate and democratise associations by the next Labour Government.

Picture is of Metropolitan SMT on beano.