Unite the Union is warning that the crisis in social care will continue to get worse until the poor treatment of care workers is addressed. That was their message when they campaigned in Fife this week launching their campaign to highlight the plight of care workers and calling for action from the Scottish government.
The Unite Scottish Convenor John Gillespie said: “The issues around retention of care workers and the failures to recruit are getting worse and the main reason for this is the poor pay and poor terms and conditions particularly in the private sector workforce.
“Unite are calling on the Scottish government to introduce a £15 an hour minimum pay for all care workers, the introduction of national terms and conditions to stop the inequalities that currently exist between those employed by councils and those employed by private companies and the establishment of national collective bargaining as a step towards a national care service for Scotland.
“Until the government take these steps, they will not get on top of the crisis that is engulfing care in Scotland”
The campaigners were joined by the Chair of the Fife Council Labour group Cllr Alex Campbell who welcomed them to Fife and said: “Fife Council now contracts out over 60% of the care packages to private companies because it is far cheaper than paying their own staff to deliver the care but the losers from this are the workers and that cannot be right and it is not right for these private companies cannot now keep the staff because they are paying way below the rate for what is a difficult and complex job so something must give.”
The figures for Fife at the end of July showed that there was 385 individuals in Fife who had been assessed for a care package but still had not got one, 105 people were on a waiting list for an assessment and over 90 people stuck in hospital because of a failure to put in a care package. The council has also reduced the number of hours for existing clients.
The SNP government must take the action required to treat care workers properly and pay them the rate for the job otherwise the issues around recruitment and retention will get worse and the losers are the people in communities who cannot get a care package. Care on the cheap does not work.
