25 October 2021 6:00pm–7:00pm
You are invited to the launch of UNISON’s Who Cares? campaign in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
Tell me more!
Join care workers and campaigners as we ask for:
- A real living wage as a minimum,
- Occupational sick pay,
- Covid-related sick pay.
The coronavirus pandemic has had tragic consequences for thousands of people in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. It has exposed the fault lines in many aspects of public life, nowhere more so than adult social care where the virus has exacted a heavy toll on many of the most vulnerable members of society.
Care workers made huge personal sacrifices to keep the system going during the pandemic but the stresses are beginning to show. Most employers report increasing numbers leaving the sector, with the stress of the job and low pay the top two reasons staff are quitting. It’s no wonder when more than half of the care workers in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire earn less than the real living wage. Many do not even earn the minimum wage as employers leave home carers’ travel time or sleep-in shifts out of calculations.
And as more people leave the already stretched sector, it’s inevitable that service users – some of the most vulnerable people in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire – will suffer, with visits cut down or insufficient staff numbers to keep homes running safely and with dignity.
Social care is now at a crossroads. Please join us as discuss the right way forward.
Speakers
- Christina McAnea, UNISON general secretary,
- Sara Johnson, social care lead at the Living Wage Foundation,
- Kiran Mal, UNISON Bedford Borough branch secretary,
- Nalin Cooke, UNISON Eastern regional organiser
- Care workers Marianne Kevan, Rolando Galang, Francisca Mhosva, Tom Ashley and Anelin Galang.
Sign me up!
The meeting will start promptly at 6pm on Microsoft Teams. To get join us just fill in the form below and we’ll email you the link.