Workers at an Oxford charity have said they cannot allow their employer to make redundancies and outsource staff.
Oxfam is believed to be planning to replace up to 250 jobs and replace them with casual workers, the Union Unite has said.
A protest of around 20 workers took place at the Oxford office in John Smith Road on Tuesday afternoon (June 3).
One protester Maureen Thompson said she will be affected by the possible redundancies, but given she is now at retirement age, she is fighting for her colleagues.
The 71-year-old said: “For me, I'm at retirement age, so I'm quite happy to be here if it would save somebody else’s job.
“There are a lot of people who don’t have a stable job right now and it’s just not right."
She added: “We have to protect the jobs now because otherwise what happens in the future if it's not? If they get away with it now, they’ll just keep doing it.
“We've been having meetings, but it's been hard work getting information and everything from [Oxfam].
"Generally, we try and have a good relationship because we believe that that is going to be better.”
Shop steward Amit Srivastava said outsourcing is “clearly a mistake” while calling on Oxfam to rethink plans.
He said: “We are surprised that Oxfam says it is not preparing to outsource work because it has told workers in writing that it is.
“In fact, its own proposal cites its intention to outsource no less than four times.
“How do know Oxfam is outsourcing jobs? Because its own proposal says that it is.
“Oxfam has said it will ‘seek to outsource our publishing’ and ‘shift towards outsourcing’ elements of training?”
“We will be putting more proposals to Oxfam in the coming weeks to save jobs and in particular avoid compulsory redundancies.”
Merlin Meyer, 45, said that although his position isn’t affected, he is protesting to “make sure as many jobs stay secure and stable” within Oxfam.
He added: “Our development team will be affected and these are people that we lean on for our career progression.
“Oxfam has specifically said it will be outsourcing, and we are directly against it.”
Although not confirmed by the charity, Unite claims the outsourcing will target workers in the publishing and training teams.
A spokesman from Oxfam previously said: “These restructuring proposals are to secure our financial future, not about a policy to replace in house roles with non-unionised casual labour.
"Where our capacity is reduced, if we use short-term specialist expertise, it will be in accordance with our labour rights standards and our values.”
