100 signatures reached
To: Council Leader Abi Brown & Cabinet Member for Social Care Ally Simcock
Normal pay for isolating Stoke Care Workers
We call upon Stoke-on-Trent City Council to make it a contractual requirement of commissioned care that employers pay all staff in all settings their normal wages in all instances when they have to self-isolate, and backdate this pay to cover any previous periods of lost pay while self-isolating.
Why is this important?
Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Stoke care workers have been, and continue to be, financially penalised for doing the right thing and protecting the vulnerable people they care for.
Proper sick pay is known to prevent the spread of infections to service users and the wider community. Care workers need the assurance that they will not be financially penalised when they need to self-isolate.
In Stoke, the majority of care workers who have spoken to UNISON have reported that instead of receiving their normal pay in line with Government guidance, they are having to survive on SSP at £96 per week, use annual leave, or in some cases get nothing at all. This is despite care employers receiving millions in public funds and being instructed to use them to pay self-isolating care workers their normal wages.