Housing Executive: Striking workers using foodbanks, union says

Some Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) workers who have been on strike for 18 weeks have been using foodbanks, a union member has said.

NIHE maintenance workers, including electricians, plumbers and joiners, began strike action over pay in September.

On Tuesday, Unite members rejected a pay offer made by management in December.

Unite member Robert Boyles described the current pay offer as derogatory.

The NIHE said it had put a reasonable offer on the table.

Speaking from the Belfast picket-line, Mr Boyles told BBC News NI: “If you were level nine or below you would benefit.

“Anybody between level nine and level 25 would either get, at most, a one-off payment of £1,000 or £500, but still be on their same wage which makes absolutely no difference to myself or the rest of the fellas who are actually trying to get a cost of living wage.

“We have people here who have admitted in a poll that 33% or 34% of members who are down here are having to go to foodbanks.”

NIHE chief executive Grainia Long said that after five days of talks with the unions in November and December, it had “put a reasonable offer on the table”.

“In addition to the national pay award of £1,925 for all staff, we offered a one-off cost of living payment of £1,000 net for all staff earning up to £32,000, and £500 net for all other staff,” Ms Long said.

“Taking the national award and the additional £1,000 payment together, this amounts to a 9.7% increase for an electrician and 12.5% increase for a plumber for the year 2022-2023.

“Our tenants pay for 70% of our staff salaries through their rents. In a cost of living crisis, our tenants would want to know that we are spending their money wisely.”

Mr Boyles, from Newtownabbey, said he was losing money but was fortunate that his children were grown-up and he did not have a mortgage.

“There are people here with young families, they’re still losing money, but they still have their outlays of their rent and their mortgage and the cost of living,” he said.

“Out of the people who voted on the executive pay offer I think it ended up 99.49% rejected it and that would have included the ones that would have benefited from it.

“They voted not to take it and stay with the people on strike.”

The strike involves about 300 of about 3,500 NIHE staff.

Mr Boyles said NIHE had also lost the use of many outside contractors and that at present only emergency maintenance work was being done.

“There are houses that need to be changed for the use of people who are disabled,” he said.

“The disabled people can’t move in because the houses are not classed as safe because the work hasn’t been done.

“The non-emergency work is being put to the side and there are thousands of jobs that could be as simple as fixing a pane of glass which aren’t being done.

“The people of Northern Ireland are literally being told you’re going to have to live with this until we get this sorted out.”