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Thank you very much for submitting your pay claim on behalf of your members. Unfortunately ENABLE Scotland is not in a position to make a pay award at this time. I would like to assure you that we have carefully considered your claim, but the financial position of the organisation leaves us with no choice. As I outlined at the last JNC meeting ENABLE Scotland is committed to increasing the level of pay for direct support staff, and in particular to working towards meeting the demands set out in the STUC campaign for a ‘living wage for Scotland’. Although we are not in a position to make a pay award at this time (for reasons I will detail below), I would like to reassure you and your members that we are genuinely committed to finding a way of achieving the ‘living wage’ as soon as we responsibly can. We would like to work closely with UNISON to achieve this commitment.
In order for your members to understand why ENABLE Scotland is unable to offer a pay award at this time, it is important that they understand the financial reality the charity is facing. As outlined in a letter written by our independent auditors to our Finance Committee in September of last year, our charity has found it necessary to release considerable sums from our central funds to reach a break even position, and these releases “mask the overall loss of the charity”.
Clearly, and as indicated starkly by our auditors, this position is not sustainable, and action is necessary to ensure the charity operates within its means to ensure its long term sustainability.
We have taken a number of steps over the course of the last year to address these problems, and your members will be well aware of many of these measures. However, despite these efforts, we find ourselves in a position where we expect to achieve only a breakeven result in the current financial year, and so any pay award at this time would put the organisation into deficit, a position it simply cannot afford to find itself in.
We continue to make structural and other changes to our charity in order to ensure we are able to operate within our means, and to help us reach a position where we can achieve the ‘living wage’ for our lower paid members of staff. You will understand, however, that this is challenging for us in the current public sector financial environment. We no longer receive, for example, the annual funding uplifts from Local Authorities that previously we could pass on to our employees. Indeed our funders are now demanding substantial reductions in our levels of funding.
The Board and Executive Directors of ENABLE Scotland are committed to working with our staff and UNISON to find ways to achieve the ‘living wage’ target as soon as we can. Therefore, we would like to invite you to join us in a working group to explore how we can effectively work together to meet this aim. If you are in agreement, we will convene the group at the earliest opportunity.
Many thanks,
Peter Scott
Chief Executive
