1,000 signatures reached
To: Scottish government
Scottish Adult Social Care in crisis - DEMAND ACTION NOW
We are calling on the Scottish Government to implement Unite the Union's immediate 5 point plan to stabilise the adult social care sector in Scotland. The 5 demands are:
1: Scrap the requirement for all care & support workers to pay for SSSC registration renewal
2: Immediately standardise the mileage rate for all care & support workers using their own cars to the same level as visiting NHS staff receive when using their own car.
3: Give parking permits to all care & support workers who would otherwise pay for parking to provide visiting care and/or support
4: Immediately raise the minimum hourly rate of pay in the sector - Unite is campaigning for a minimum of £15 per hour.
5: Ensure that basic employment rights under the working time regulations are adhered to. Quite literally, give workers the breaks they are entitled to.
While our medium to longer term goal remains National Sectoral Level Bargaining, allowing workers across the entire sector to bargain collectively and set the standard for pay, terms & conditions, the workers we have spoken to across Scotland need to see action now.
Unite the Union is committed to fighting for a Scottish National Care Service that puts the rights of workers and service users at it's heart. For us this includes the full involvement of Local Authorities and Trade Unions and ensuring any future National Care Service is: free at the point of need as well as being publicly owned and publicly accountable to the people of Scotland.
Why is this important?
Unite the Union in Scotland undertook the biggest exercise in getting workers views from the sector on how a potential National Care Service in Scotland should work from them. From that survey, it was clear that the issues that were being experienced by a majority of workers couldn't wait until the creation of a National Care Service and had to be challenged immediately.