Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY Published: 7 February 2008
Protest at charity’s jobs axe
WORKERS protested at “unfair” forced redundancies at the office of Age Concern Camden (ACC) on Tuesday.
About 20 colleagues of finance and human resources managers Marine McKenzie and Ade Arougundade staged a lunchtime demonstration outside the charity’s Camden headquarters at Margaret Hepburn Centre, in St Chad’s Street, St Pancras.
They protested at their colleagues’ imminent redundancy in a management restructuring.
Unison shop steward Abul Choudhury said: “We want to know why these two persons – and only them – are not fit for purpose after seven years’ service. These aren’t cuts, but they have serious implications for our management structure.”
The loss of two black staff of management rank would also affect the charity’s diversity profile, he added.
Age Concern said yesterday that it was disappointed the union had taken action before talks about the restructuring, agreed in January, had been completed.
Trustees chairwoman Barbara Hughes said neither deleted post affected front-line care and that the restructuring created more, not fewer, staff hours.
She said: “Two staff posts out of 58 would be made redundant, but new posts created. Changes can be painful, but these changes are about the long-term health of ACC to enable us to improve services for older people”.