Council urged to protect solo home care workers

Council care staff working alone at night feel increasingly at risk and must be given more protection, according to GMB Scotland.

The union said home care workers have been alarmed by a recent spate of incidents and are fearful walking between addresses in neighbourhoods where street lighting is often inadequate and CCTV coverage non-existent.

The calls for greater protection for solo workers delivering frontline care comes as councillors call for an emergency summit in response to statistics revealing a huge rise in the violence against women in the city.

Frances Stojilkovic, GMB Scotland rep at Glasgow City Council, said home care workers, who are almost all women, should no longer be expected to work alone at night without back-up or support.

She said: “Our members are working alone, walking from one address to another through dark and empty streets, and making regular visits to the same flats and houses.

“The risks are obvious but are no longer acceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.

“Care workers should not be expected to work in fear and uncertainty, constantly checking over their shoulders to establish if they are being watched or followed.”

A survey of GMB members in home care previously revealed 96% felt unsafe working alone at night; 79% said there was not enough support for lone workers; and more than half (54%) said working alone at night was affecting their mental health.

The union is urging councillors to ensure home care staff work in pairs at night and offer a pool car to take them to a public transport route at the end of their shift if needed; and additional coordinator cover for extra oversight after 6pm.

One home care worker told how of her terror when she was followed after getting off the bus on her way home.

She said: “I had finished my shift and got the bus home so it must have been about half-ten or so.

“I was walking back to my house when I became aware of a car behind me, going slowly, at the same speed as me.

“I looked over my shoulder once and the guy was looking at me and the car was crawling along. I was terrified, totally panicked.

“There was no one else in sight and I just started walking quicker and quicker. He must have known I was panicking because he drove past me and then turned and parked right on the corner in front of me.

“But that was my street and I had texted my mum and she rushed out and started screaming at him and bashing his car.

“He took off but I was absolutely shaking, trembling. Who knows what would have happened?

“It just makes you scared. You are always aware of who is on the street, who might watching you.

“It’s so stressful, a horrible feeling not to feel safe.”

Another care worker said: “We have to go into a lot of flats in areas which aren’t the best.

“Two delivery drivers were held up last week with a knife in one of the closes we visit.

“It’s scary and it just feels as if no one cares about what might happen.”

The GMB campaign for better protection for lone workers comes soon after the council committed £500,000 to help the Glasgow become the UK’s “first feminist city” by ensuring planners help make public spaces safer for women and girls with better lighting, for example.

The local authority promised £500,000 to help “build a city for women empowering them to be more mobile and safe in their communities.”

Councillor Anne McTaggart, chair of local authority’s Feminist Urbanism Political Oversight Group, said: “Good design for women is good design for everybody.

“This group has made sure women are no longer an afterthought when it comes to our public spaces.”

GMB recently revealed a fifth of the city’s CCTV cameras needed repaired and John Slaven, GMB Scotland organiser in the council, said: “Politics is about priority and if this council has £500,000 to spend protecting women then it should start with its workers.”

Meanwhile, councillor Soryia Sidique has called for an emergency summit on violence against women and girls following publication of new statistics.

The Safe Glasgow Partnership, reported rape increasing 40.6% in the last year and sexual assault has increased by 28%. Sidique, a Labour councillor said the trends were “alarming”  and demanded “urgent and sustained action”.