Collective action gets results in housing as management agree to recruit to a vacant post.
Earlier this year in the housing district offices, we faced cuts like others but one of the ways that management had said they wanted to find a percentage of the cuts was to hold posts vacant when they arose and this would be one post per district.
In Kentish Town DHO we were told that the post that would be held vacant was that of an Estate Officer. We were told that we were expected among the rest of us to cover this patch of 690 council homes. We held a shop meeting and decided that there was no way we could take on any extra work with our stressful workloads, and we know that UNISON has national policy of supporting members who refuse to cover for vacant posts. We held firm, united in our position against pressure from management and they backed down and agreed to recruit to the post. All the Estate Officers here were very pleased that they had taken such a reasonable and confident stand and that they had won!
Mandy Berger
Shop Steward Kentish Town DHO