GMB Scotland Calling Notice

GMB Scotland Calling Notice: Glasgow Home Care ‘Safe at Night’ Campaign Launch

 Where: City Chambers, 82 George Square, Glasgow, G2 1DU

When: 12.30, Thursday 31 October 2019

Home Care Staff Call On Glasgow City Council To Help Keep Them ‘Safe At Night’

GMB Scotland members in Glasgow City Council’s home care service will launch a new campaign tomorrow (Thursday 31 October) calling on their employer to support new proposals geared towards improving safety at work.

The ‘Safe at Night’ campaign is a direct response to increasing concerns among home care staff about their personal safety while working and returning home from shifts in the evening.

Ahead of the full council meeting at 1PM, home carers will gather outside the city chambers and ask elected representatives to support their campaign aims, which include:

• Dual working arrangements for on foot carers during ‘out of hours’ service;
• A pool car to return carers to a direct transport route home at the end of each shift; and
• Increased home care coordinator resource during ‘out of hours’ for staff safety.

GMB Scotland Branch Secretary Shona Thomson said: “It’s a modest ask of the council to make sure that home carers feel more safe at night while looking after some of Glasgow’s most vulnerable citizens.

“Many home carers work ‘on foot’ and alone until 10PM each evening. They visit their service users and tend to their needs and well-being before making their own way home, all year round and in all conditions.

“Unfortunately, too many home care staff will have a story to tell about being intimidated, threatened and even assaulted at night while walking between jobs or waiting for transport to take them home at the end of a shift.

“We can do better than this. That’s why we are calling on councillors and service directors to work with us by introducing our three simple improvements to the existing and out-dated working arrangements – and we think that’s something everyone can agree with.”

ENDS

Contact: GMB Scotland Branch Secretary Shona Thomson on 07970 603094 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.