Breaking News: London Living Wage a good start but we want more for our members.
The Barnet Group has just announced that as from 1st April it wants to pay the London Living Wage to all its staff as the 250 staff who TUPE transferred from Fremantle two years ago were on lower rates of pay. More than 100 are still on the legal minimum wage only. The London Living Wage is a good start but it is also long overdue.
“Sometimes we do 14 hour shifts and the overtime is what we do in the afternoon/ evening. We do this to make up the money. Then we’re back on shift the next morning.” (A Barnet Group care worker).
Even before the transfer was completed Barnet UNISON made it clear to management that we would need these workers to be moved onto the London Living Wage as soon as possible. We did not envisage it would take 2 years to achieve this goal. A lot has changed. These workers have risked their lives and the lives of their own families by working through the pandemic. They have grieved over the excessive death rates of those they care for. None of this was part of what they had signed up for when they became care workers.
“You see these chair people – I bet they have never gone round someone’s home and done a repair themselves; or given someone a bed bath or held someone’s hand while they were dying…But they get all the money!”
(A Barnet Group care worker).
In order to part fund this rise in pay the same staff will have to give up their weekend and bank holiday enhancements. Overall this still leaves them with a significant increase in pay (yes that’s how miserable their pay was before!) but as a trade union we will never accept that colleagues working nights, weekends and bank holidays are just working normal days like the rest of us. Night shift work is known to be a health hazard. Those working weekends and bank holidays should receive additional compensation for sacrificing some of their family life or time with friends. Otherwise we end up in the kind of society we have now where employers show little regard for workers’ down time.
“It might be the London Living Wage but it’s not the London Living standard, is it?”
(A Barnet Group care worker).
Helen Davies, UNISON Branch Chair says: “There is another aspect to the London Living Wage and it is this: The work done by the majority of the workforce is skilled work. It is done by a predominantly female workforce and yet their skills are being rewarded with what is the merely adequate minimum wage. They are being paid similarly to refuse loaders in the Council. There is no doubt if their jobs were evaluated against schemes run in the Council then the London Living Wage simply does not cut it.”
End.
Note to Editors: Contact details: Helen Davies Barnet UNISON on or 020 8359 2088 or email: Helen.Davies@barnetunison.org.uk
Background:
Barnet Care workers update: London Living Wage decision delayed due to General Election
Barnet Council: The London and the Barnet Living Wage story continues……..
Be afraid. Barnet London Living Wage campaign is……..
Sign Barnet care workers London Living Wage Petition
John McDonnell supports London Living Wage for our care workers
Barnet Care Workers deserve the London Living Wage
https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2019/10/01/barnet-care-workers-deserve-the-london-living-wage/