Care workers to rally at Holyrood after five years of broken promises

Care workers will rally at the Scottish Parliament to mark five years since Covid and highlight broken promises of support.

GMB Scotland members in private social care will demonstrate at Holyrood to call for action five years since the start of the pandemic when their crucial frontline work in residential homes was hailed for saving countless lives.

Care home workers, backed by colleagues from the public sector, will say enough is enough at the rally at Holyrood on Thursday, 27 March at 11am and call for fair pay, sick pay and better terms and conditions across the private sector.

Last year, GMB Scotland and other staff unions urged the return of £38 million of funding ringfenced social care workers but secretly cut from Scottish Government budget while highlighting the glacial progress towards a promised £15 an hour minimum wage.

Change promised after Covid has not materialised and the union, one of the biggest in the care sector, says the rally at the parliament will highlight broken promises and lack of support.

Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, said care home staff were needlessly risked during lockdown because managers issuing safety advice and personal protective equipment (PPE) did not understand their jobs or the risks.

She said: “We do not need a public inquiry to know that many frontline staff were placed in jeopardy and the risks of their jobs not properly recognised.

"We were promised, however, that lessons would be learned, that Covid would change everything and mean the work of care workers would be properly recognsised.

"Five years on, those assurances have proved worthless and nothing has changed for our care workers.

“They were absolutely failed during the pandemic and there is every chance they would be failed again if there was another tomorrow.

“The true value of their work and commitment was revealed during the pandemic but quickly forgotten when it came to properly rewarding and recognising it.

“There was a wave of appreciation and understanding of their work but those warm words would not be reflected in their pay or conditions.”

Gilmour recalled how, in care homes during lockdown, staff were putting their lives on the line unaware that Covid patients were being transferred from hospitals into their homes where much of the personal protective equipment was scarce, ill-fitting and out of date.

Gilmour said: “Nurses and doctors were righty applauded during the pandemic but many other workers were keeping the country on its feet, from public transport and retail to care homes and cleansing, and no one was clapping for them.

“Our members did not want applause only to be properly protected and too often that did not happen.

“The pandemic demonstrated the value decision makers put on different jobs and there is nothing to suggest that has changed.

“Social care workers cannot be forgotten again. The promises made to them must be kept.

“This demonstration will underline the need to pay them properly and treat them fairly.”