youth workers - crunch time over pay
WORKERS, FEBRUARY 2004 ISSUE
The Community and Youth Workers Union is holding a national ballot of members on terms and conditions. Members must decide between industrial action short of a strike or strike action in furtherance of their claim.
Youth workers are looking for more than 3% on pay, the introduction of a scale for advanced practitioners to help the service to retain experienced face-to-face practitioners and the withdrawal of proposals to lower entry qualification levels.
The union has highlighted the fact that 4,000 more youth workers are needed to meet government staffing targets and that most local authorities have redirected government money allocated for the Youth Service to other things. While young people with academic aspirations are now being hit by proposals for top-up fees, those who need support and different forms of education in their localities are being hit by cuts in the Youth Service.
Meanwhile managers invent new ways of spending money on corporate gear and lunches or, in the case of Sheffield, on redundancies. And of course youth workers in every locality are expected to do a more difficult job with new demanding targets for less and less pay.
Too much is being asked of too few for too little and it is time that youth workers made the employers see sense.