STAFF of the national church institutions (NCI) are holding a ballot on industrial action after they received a pay freeze in 2009
On Monday, NCI staff picketed Church House, Westminster, as Synod members arrived, and distributed a leaflet that outlined their grievances. It said that “it was not an easy decision” to consider a strike, but decisions of management over the past year “left staff angered, with little option as to how to register their concerns”. An initial submission for a rise of three per cent, and a further request for an increase of one per cent for the lowest-paid staff, had been refused.
Andrew Britton, who chairs the Archbishops’ Council’s finance committee, told the Synod that the NCI “cannot be immune from the same financial pressures that have led many dioceses to take similar steps in relation to clergy stipends and lay employees”.