Care workers rally at Holyrood to “fight for fifteen”

Care workers rally at Holyrood to “fight for fifteen” as pay campaign ramps-up ahead of national care service consultation close

Where: Scottish Parliament Main Entrance, Edinburgh,

When: 12.00 hours, Saturday 23 October 2021

Care workers will rally at the Scottish Parliament this weekend (Saturday 23 October) as they step-up their fight for £15 an hour social care minimum wage.

GMB is inviting the media, public and politicians to come and listen to the testimonies of members from across the care industry, detailing their experiences and struggles of care delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for substantial pay increases.

Pre-pandemic the Fair Work Convention’s Social Care Report established that over 200,000 staff were employed in the social care sector, four-fifths of which were women, but revealed a billion-pound industry mired in precarious work, excessive hours, and chronic low pay – facts reinforced by testimonies of GMB members in social care in our ‘Show You Care’ Report (see Notes to Editors).

The Scottish Government consultation on the future of a National Care Service will close on Tuesday 2 November.

GMB Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour said:

“We can make work better for hundreds of thousands of care workers now and in future if we substantially improve their pay, and that should be all the motivation needed to deliver a £15 an hour social care minimum as the centrepiece of a National Care Service.

“COVID-19 has exposed all the underlying problems facing workers in care, problems that were well understood by employers and political leaders pre-pandemic but left unchallenged, and contributed towards care becoming the ‘crisis within a crisis’.

“Let’s learn the lessons. If we want to tackle the current understaffing crisis, end exploitative employment practices, and ultimately improve standards for everyone, then we must start paying people properly for the essential work they do.

“That’s why the prospect of wages amounting to little more than £10 an hour in the years to come simply won’t stand, and it’s why GMB members across Scotland’s social care sector are ‘fighting for fifteen’.

Notes to Editors:

Fair Work in Scotland's Social Care Sector Report

GMB Scotland's Show You Care Report