Unite union's jobs protest at Leeds debt charity office

StepChange offers free and impartial debt advice, it said.

About a dozen union members protested outside debt charity StepChange's head office over "counterproductive" plans for job redundancies.

Members of Unite the union held a socially distanced protest in Leeds.

Phil Boyes of Unite said StepChange was "rushing into panicked plans for redundancies that will prove counterproductive".

The charity said plans for up to 170 redundancies had been reduced to 70 job losses after employee consultation.

StepChange said the redundancy decision was "one that we all wish we could avoid" and was "a difficult and painful process".

The 70 jobs equate to about 5% of the charity's workforce.

The charity provides free, impartial debt advice and opened its head office in Leeds in 1993.

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Unite said redundancies would be "counterproductive once furlough and other pandemic support measures come to an end"

However, the number of people coming for debt advice had been significantly down since the start of the pandemic, the charity said.

"In 2020 we helped 200,000 people through full debt advice, compared to more than 300,000 in 2019", it said.

The charity had to introduce cost cutting measures alongside redundancies as "the inescapable reality is that our funding structure depends upon advice volume", it said.

Unite said StepChange's redundancy plans would result in the charity being overwhelmed by debt advice inquiries as the government's financial support during the Covid-19 pandemic comes to an end.

The union urged Stepchange to work with it to find ways including the furlough scheme to avoid the "unnecessary and ill-thought-through" redundancies.

The union has 100 members at the charity.

StepChange said workers could be accompanied by a union representative at individual consultation meetings.