Wigan’s drug and alcohol workers call on council to intervene in industrial dispute

Workers from We Are With You, formerly Addaction, remain in a stand-off with their employer and have staged walkouts on multiple occasions in recent months. The dispute began after Addaction reneged on a promise to ensure workers’ pay kept pace with NHS employees doing similar jobs.

And the bitter dispute was fuelled on when Addaction announced it would be undergoing a £140,000 rebrand to We Are With You, despite telling its staff there was no cash to give them a pay rise on several occasions.

A truce had been called not to continue striking over the Christmas and new year period, after 11 days of strike action in 2019. But employees, who were employed by the NHS before Wigan Council transferred their roles to the London-based charity, voted unanimously to take further action earlier this month.

And this time they took the picket line to Wigan Council’s doorstep, in a bid to persuade the local authority to step in and resolve the issue.

Paul Almond, a We Are With You employee and Unison rep, said the town hall should, as the commissioning body, look to bring an end to the bitter disputes.

Mr Almond, 61, said: “We are trying to put more pressure on the council now, to stop sitting on the fence, and say to them ‘look, while this is going on, it’s having an impact on the staff but also the service users - the vulnerable people we all work to help.

“Striking was a last resort. It wasn’t a decision we took lightly, we all find it difficult to be out on strike.

“There are days when I’ve been on strike and still reading my emails, and tried to reply to them. That’s an indication that we’re quite dedicated. We’re not in this job for the money, but we feel we deserve fair pay for a fair job.”

Mr Almond added: “We’re very fortunate - given the small number of staff we have on strike - to have had five MPs on our line - Yvonne Fovargue, Lisa Nandy, Jo Platt, Connor McGinn and Angela Rayner.

“We’ve also had informal meetings with Keith Cunliffe, the council’s deputy leader.

“He’s kind of facilitated meetings with We Are With You directors and Unison reps, to try moving things along, but we’ve not made a great deal of progress.”

A Wigan Council spokesperson said: “The council has engaged with both parties from the outset of the dispute and held several meetings.

“This included organising a joint meeting to bring both sides around the table and facilitate discussion.

“We do understand the strikes are not purely a financial resolution but a broader issue of equality for

“We are with You’s wider workforce but this is an employer dispute and not a dispute directly with the council.

“As commissioners our priority is to ensure those most in need have the services and support they need.

“Our door is always open to both sides in finding a solution.”

A spokesperson for drug, alcohol and mental health charity We Are With You, said: “We are proud of our service in Wigan. It is a warm, non-judgemental space which helps people to make healthier choices.

“Anyone can walk in and will be seen by a member of staff on the same day, with the latest Care Quality Commission report giving the service a rating of ‘Good’.

“We know only a minority of people who need support for drug, alcohol and mental health issues in the UK are actively engaging in treatment.

“We need to do everything in our power to change this.

“So, for the past 18 months we have been talking to our staff and the people who use our services across the UK.

“This research has shown that building a warmer, more personal brand will enable us to help more people overcome the barriers to accessing support.

“When tested, three times as many people surveyed said they would choose We Are With You compared to Addaction.

“We hope this will help more people to start a new chapter in their lives.

“The cost of the rebrand is a very small portion of our overall budget, with no local service being impacted by it.”

The spokesperson went on to discuss the strike action: “We have listened to and understood our staff’s concerns and made a new financial offer which we think is fair and sustainable. We are clearly disappointed the majority of staff have rejected this and further action is going ahead. Separately, we are awarding all staff across the whole charity a 2% salary increase in the next financial year. This is true for all our services, from Cornwall to Wigan, to the north of Scotland.

“We are committed to finding a solution that is fair and sustainable for our staff, clients and the whole community and will continue to work with our staff in Wigan and Leigh to achieve this.”