Charity fun
From this week's Third Sector:
Why do so many workers take charities to tribunal?
Charity staff take a disproportionate number of cases to employment tribunals. John Plummer asks why the sector is so susceptible to litigation from its employees, and how the situation can be improved.
People who work for charities may be a kind and caring lot, but it seems their goodwill doesn't extend to their managers.
According to government figures, voluntary sector staff account for 2 per cent of the national workforce but are responsible for 6 per cent of employment tribunal cases. A Liverpool University survey in 2003 revealed that 25 per cent of charities had been called to a tribunal in the past year.
The statistics raise difficult questions about how charities treat their staff: do they exploit their passion for the cause or simply fail to take employee relations seriously?
...
"Smaller charities are suffering serious problems," says Ian Cunningham, a lecturer specialising in voluntary sector employee relations at Strathclyde University. "Trade union officials talk about the amateurishness even of medium-sized charities," he says. "Sometimes it's down to them adopting well meaning procedures that tie their hands."
Mike Emmott, an adviser on employee relations at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says there are some "desperately bad management practices in the senior levels of the voluntary sector". He fears the sheer number of small charities will hamper attempts to reduce the disproportionately high volume of tribunals.
Hmmmm. This comes at a time when my former employer has offered me rather a lot of money to do some work for them. Yup, it's the same employer that gave me an official warning about being incapable of doing my job. (read all about it! here, here and here).
Also, just had a meeting with my new employer where I was told that although some people were in a union, most weren't, they said, as it's better to negotiate on a personal basis...
Why do so many workers take charities to tribunal?
Charity staff take a disproportionate number of cases to employment tribunals. John Plummer asks why the sector is so susceptible to litigation from its employees, and how the situation can be improved.
People who work for charities may be a kind and caring lot, but it seems their goodwill doesn't extend to their managers.
According to government figures, voluntary sector staff account for 2 per cent of the national workforce but are responsible for 6 per cent of employment tribunal cases. A Liverpool University survey in 2003 revealed that 25 per cent of charities had been called to a tribunal in the past year.
The statistics raise difficult questions about how charities treat their staff: do they exploit their passion for the cause or simply fail to take employee relations seriously?
...
"Smaller charities are suffering serious problems," says Ian Cunningham, a lecturer specialising in voluntary sector employee relations at Strathclyde University. "Trade union officials talk about the amateurishness even of medium-sized charities," he says. "Sometimes it's down to them adopting well meaning procedures that tie their hands."
Mike Emmott, an adviser on employee relations at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says there are some "desperately bad management practices in the senior levels of the voluntary sector". He fears the sheer number of small charities will hamper attempts to reduce the disproportionately high volume of tribunals.
Hmmmm. This comes at a time when my former employer has offered me rather a lot of money to do some work for them. Yup, it's the same employer that gave me an official warning about being incapable of doing my job. (read all about it! here, here and here).
Also, just had a meeting with my new employer where I was told that although some people were in a union, most weren't, they said, as it's better to negotiate on a personal basis...
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