Time to Care - if you work in care are you getting the Scottish Living Wage?

#TimetoCare From 1 October 2016 social care workers should be be paid £8.25 per hour.

Help UNISON enforce the Living Wage and Fair Work. Click here to fill in our Living Wage survey right now!

Are you being paid the Scottish Living Wage?
This is most likely to apply to you if you work for the Community, Voluntary or Private sector.

New Social Care Rights from 1 October as demanded by Scottish Government are:

• The Scottish Living Wage of £8.25
• Fair working conditions
• An effective voice for staff when negotiating with your employer
• Secure working arrangements
• Opportunities to advance your career in social care

All this should be embedded in the revised funding of the organisation you work for.

If you work in social care and are not being paid the Scottish Living Wage – or if your terms and conditions have been altered as a result of receiving the Living Wage – then you need to let us know.

This applies to anyone aged 18 and over.

Click here to tell us about it right now using our fast survey.

And check out our TimeTo Care campaign right here

#TimetoCare

Aberdeenshire UNISON urges home care members to tell it like it is at council meetings

Aberdeenshire UNISON is urging all our Home Care members to get along to the council's meetings, which have been set up in response to serious concerns from UNISON members and others that the new Buddy phone is not fit for purpose and could put vulnerable clients at risk.

See dates and times of meetings below.

These meetings will take place around Aberdeenshire in March and April. UNISON will be in attendance at all these meetings. The Branch has already raised a number of our members' issues with Home Care management and has issued a survey to all our members asking for their views on a range of terms and conditions matters including the Buddy.

If you have a survey that you have not yet completed, please do so and send it back to the branch in the freepost envelope you were sent out with the survey, as we need this as evidence to take to our employer.

UNISON seeks talks with management amidst concerns about new “Buddy” phones

Aberdeenshire UNISON is to meet with home care management to discuss the concerns of members in South and Central Aberdeenshire about the new “Buddy” phones, which the council has issued to home carers.

At a packed meeting of both members and non-members in Inverurie on 12th Feb 2015, staff told how these phones are not properly programmed, break down regularly and of their worries that these could put both service users and carers at risk.

Kate Ramsden, Branch Chair, who organised the meeting following requests from home care members said, “The issues raised at that meeting have now been sent to management. We have also sent a copy of the report to all home care members across Aberdeenshire and we are urging them to get in touch to let us know of their experience of the “Buddy” and whether it chimes with the concerns expressed by the carers who attended on 12th.”

Inez Teece, Branch Secretary added, "The council is also planning a series of meetings with home care staff across Aberdeenshire, which UNISON will attend, and we are urging all our members to get along to these meetings, to pass on their concerns direct to senior management."

Click here to read the full story