A care worker for Plymouth City Council
Essential care workers organised in Unite the Union and employed by the Labour-run Plymouth City Council have taken strike action for the first time demanding that they are paid what they are owed.
The Independence@Home (I@H) department provides care and support to vulnerable adults both day and night, working with those with mental health issues, substance addictions and terminal illnesses.
Since care services were brought back in-house in 2019, it has operated a ‘shortfall shift’ system whereby management records “downtime between home visits”, despite this clearly being working time. So, if an appointment is cancelled at short notice or there are no appointments at certain times within a working day, carers can be left sitting in their cars, sometimes alone at night, waiting to be allocated work.
The council then makes them work this time again in subsequent weeks, often on a designated day off, but with no pay of any kind. In no other department is this the expectation and workers have had to resort to strike action.
“You were always on edge, always on call and it was always stressful not being able to properly switch off. None of us want to be here on the picket line, we want to be caring, I worry about my clients but if you don’t stand up for yourself and stand together as a family then what is the point?”
We’re told by Tracey Lee, Plymouth City Council’s chief executive, that the council has ‘plans’ but so far there has been no negotiation with management whatsoever, and the only thing they have offered is an independent audit to be conducted by Devon County Council. The problem is that an independent audit has already been done and it’s inconvenient for the council because it backs up our claim as a legitimate one. It’s frustrating because they’re willing to throw money at that to stall the strike but they won’t just pay us what they owe.
We just want recognition and an apology that they got this wrong, with a bit of compensation to pay us for all those hours we’ve worked unpaid. But where money is concerned, nobody wants to give any away.
Having already come out from 25-29 November and from 9-15 December, we are determined to stand our ground to make clear we won’t budge. We’ve seen nothing yet from management but we are planning to be out again 23 December – 5 January if they continue to try to ignore us.
