Oxfam pay one worker at least £340,000 - as staff forced to go on strike

25 November 2023 , 18:24

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Anti-poverty charity Oxfam (Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)

Anti-poverty charity Oxfam handed up to £349,000 to just one employee in a year.

Struggling workers are striking for the first time in the organisation’s 81-year history over poor pay. Some 8% of staff have used foodbanks, 22% could not pay their rent, and 34% had to choose between heating and eating, a union survey found.

Yet the charity had income of £373million and reserves of £44.6million in 2021/2022, accounts show – and paid a single overseas worker £340,000 to £349,000. The giant sum is almost three times the salary Oxfam boss Danny Sriskandarajah received.

Oxfam boss Danny Sriskandarajah

Almost 500 workers at Oxfam GB will walk out across 17 days next month. Staffers in shops, offices and at HQ are angry that average wages have been cut by 21% in real terms since 2018.

A note in the accounts said the huge staff payment “reflects packages which include redundancy payments... as required under national legislation in the countries where they were based”. The accounts also say that long-term expat staff may get cash “towards the cost of education for up to three children” and living allowances in “very expensive countries”.

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The note adds: “The figures for the four overseas based employees earning over £100,000 include employees with pay set in USD and include payments for accommodation, redundancy and gratuity paid in lieu of pension.” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Oxfam wants to end poverty and says it is on the side of unions. Yet its own workers report having to use foodbanks, it refuses to engage with the only union representing its workforce, and it is considering using unpaid labour to break a strike. This is rank hypocrisy from an organisation that should know better.

“Oxfam is an extremely wealthy organisation and can afford to put forward an acceptable offer without impacting its charity work.” Unite said members voted 83% in favour of strike action after rejecting a pay offer of £1,750 or 6% and a one-off taxable payment of £1,000 for the lowest earners. A spokesman for Oxfam reiterated: “The payment to a senior overseas staff member was largely made up of a redundancy payment.”

In relation to the strike, they said: “We are obviously disappointed... We deeply regret that we could not do more but the settlement Unite is asking for is simply not affordable for Oxfam at a time when many of the communities we work with around the world are also facing sharply rising costs.”

Simon Murphy