{"id":408334,"date":"2025-09-08T17:28:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/408334\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:28:18","slug":"glasgow-and-lanarkshire-care-workers-to-strike-over-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/408334\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow and Lanarkshire care workers to strike over pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/d445c7e0-617b-11f0-a2bf-734fbaa8b01e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images Close-up of a nurse in pink scrubs holding a patient's hand.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Unison has called on the Scottish government to provide better funding for the care sector<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Care workers at one of Scotland&#8217;s biggest health charities have announced plans for two days of strike action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Staff at Enable Scotland in Glasgow and Lanarkshire will walk out on Tuesday and Thursday this week as part of an ongoing pay dispute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The union Unison claimed workers in the care sector had been underpaid for too long, and called on the Scottish government to provide better funding for the sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Enable and Unison have agreed life-and-limb cover for the two days of strike action, meaning those most at risk will be protected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The union has argued care workers have been underpaid by about \u00a35,500 since April 2022, which it says is due to the Scottish government not matching carers&#8217; pay with NHS rates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Unison estimates that while workers within the NHS are paid \u00a313.22 an hour on Band 2 of the NHS pay scale, those working outside the health service earn \u00a312.60.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Enable and the Scottish government have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Strike action previously took place across Scotland in May and June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The union&#8217;s general secretary Christina McAnea said striking was not staff wanted, but claimed they had no other choice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">She added: &#8220;They deliver vital care to some of the most vulnerable people in the country, yet their wages simply aren&#8217;t enough to live on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;The Scottish government must do the right thing by better funding social care and showing workers that they value them by paying them fair, decent wages.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/d61862e0-8c9a-11f0-82f9-8f84bfd373ef.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media A man standing, wearing a pale blue suit. He is balding, with stubble. \" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>Unison intends to deliver &#8220;invoices&#8221; to the office of Health Secretary Neil Gray<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">As part of the industrial action, employees will hand over symbolic &#8220;invoices&#8221; to the office of Health Secretary Neil Gray, calling for payment of their outstanding earnings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Unison Scotland regional organiser Jennifer McCarey said only &#8220;substantial improvement to the hourly rate for care workers in Scotland will save the sector from disaster&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The Scottish government&#8217;s social care minister, Tom Arthur, said he hoped Enable and Unison would resolve the dispute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He stated: &#8220;Whilst pay negotiations are a matter for trade unions and employers, I urge both parties to continue to work together to reach an agreement which is fair for the workforce and affordable for Enable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;We are committed to further improving support for the social care workforce and the introduction of sectoral bargaining for the commissioned adult social care sector is progressing well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Once in place this will help see improvements in pay, and terms and conditions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">An Enable spokesperson said additional pay beyond the real living wage would be dependent on external funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">They added: &#8220;We would welcome a national pay settlement for the charity sector social care workforce which is on a par with pay deals for care workers in the public sector.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Unison has called on the Scottish government to provide better funding for the care sector Care&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-408334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115169860606804333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}