‘UNISON means? Confidence, learning and not getting a pay cut’

“I first got involved with UNISON six years ago when they cut our pay from £9 per hour to £6. “I work with elderly people who have substance abuse problems, dementia, and mental health problems. “A lot of the residents we’re getting now are highly dependent. Before, we were encouraging people to go out to school, maybe getting them in to classes so that they felt independent, but now the atmosphere is lower. “Sometimes my shifts are spent with service users: doing personal care, providing lunch, doing their shopping, or sometimes I’m in the office booking appointments with GPs or taking people to hospital, and sometimes I do a sleeping in shift. “Zero-hour contracts are a problem. It means the service users don’t know the staff that are coming in, because the staff change a lot. Service users are affected. There are people there to support them, it’s just that they don’t know them. They have to deal with strangers more often. “Some of them have complained, because they have a specific way they want things done and it’s not being done, or they’re being asked about something that the regular staff know exactly how to do. “The manager has created a list with details of exactly what each resident wants, but the problem is not everybody reads it; they don’t always have time. This creates more work for the permanent staff. There is always more work to do. “I really like working with people with dementia, but you don’t know what you’re going to...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Article UNISON voices careworker community and voluntary heart unions living wage save care now success zero hours zero-hours contracts Source Type: news