Care workers strike against pay cuts

Some 120 care workers in south-west England are going on strike tomorrow over their employer’s attempt to cut their wages. And they will be staging more two-hour strikes throughout the rest of June. The strike, by residential care workers in Bath and North East Somerset, runs from 8am on Wednesday 6 June to 8am on Thursday 7 June. It is taking place because their employer is trying to introduce an half-hour unpaid break into their shifts, meaning they would have to choose between working longer hours for the same pay or seeing their wages fall. Workers who don’t take the unpaid break would be asked to “pay back” the time by working unpaid shifts. At the moment, many of the staff use additional voluntary ‘bank shifts’ to make ends meet. Careworker Bernadette points out that for her, “the accrued time would come to 17 shifts a year. Seven shifts on ‘bank’ would give me about £756 extra to pay our bills, to put food on the table or even to help keep a roof over my head.” Bernadette is a UNISON rep at Sirona, the private company trying to introduce the changes at homes around Bath, Keynsham and Midsomer Norton. She pointed out that the  other choice facing her and other union members is “to forfeit these unpaid breaks, which are not currently part of my contract, and lose hundreds of pounds a year. “A lot of my colleagues are worse off than me, as some will ‘owe’ up to 16 shifts back, with the accrued half-hour breaks.” Their employer, Sirona, is a...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Article adult social care local government residential care South West Source Type: news