• Barnet Labour propose additional payment in recognition of lost income

Former Fremantle care workers employed by The Barnet Group – the company wholly owned by Barnet Council – will at last have their pay increased to the London’s Living Wage – the minimum income standard for London.

The pay increase was included in both the Labour Group alternative budget, and the Conservative Council budget at last night’s Full Council Budget Meeting (3 March). It follows campaigning by Labour councillors and Trade Unions since the care workers were first employed by The Barnet Group in July 2019.

The Labour alternative budget also included funding for a one-off bonus payment to the care workers making up the last year of their lost income. This was to recognise the fact that these workers have been carrying out the same work as other Barnet Group care workers, but on less pay during the pandemic.

Barnet’s Labour councillors continue to run a petition calling on the Government to bring forward long overdue proposals to adequately fund adults’ social care which would ensure that all care workers in the Capital are paid at least the London Living Wage of £10.85 per hour – the minimum income standard for London.

The London Living Wage is the minimum needed to cover the basics of living in the Capital and is calculated each year by the independent Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission.

Barnet Labour’s Adults’ & Safeguarding spokesperson, Cllr Paul Edwards said: “I welcome that the former Fremantle care workers will finally be paid the minimum needed to afford the basics of living in London.

“We believe this should have been done from day one. Paying all our staff a fair wage that ensures a decent living is the right thing to do.

“In our budget we have also made some additional funding available to the Barnet Group for these workers, to go some way to recognise that they have been risking their own lives to care for our elderly over the last year at less pay than other staff the Barnet Group employs.

“During the pandemic, thousands of people in need of social care support, as well as many staff who care for them, have paid the ultimate price.  The pandemic has brutally exposed the lack of funding, and an unstable market for providers. Social care is provided by a workforce that is underpaid and overstretched.

“The roots of this crisis have been long in the making. Spending per person on social care fell by 12 per cent between 2010/20.  Pay is low particularly relative to the NHS.

“We need a new deal for the funding of Adult Social Care – Professor Martin Green of Care England has called for a ten-year plan for adult social care akin to that in the NHS.  The House of Commons cross party Health and Social Care Committee concluded in the autumn that we need a £7bn injection in adult social care.  We need the Government to do the right thing, and it is disappointing that there is virtually nothing in today’s budget announcement.”

 

Ends.

 

Notes:

  1. A link to the Barnet Labour alternative budget: https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/b37328/Labour%20Group%20Alternative%20Budget%202021-22%2002nd-Mar-2021%2019.00%20Council.pdf?T=9
  2. A link to the petition can be found here: https://www.barnetlabour.org.uk/2021/02/05/fully-fund-adults-social-care-pay-all-care-workers-at-least-the-real-living-wage-londons-living-wage/
  3. For details of LLW:
    https://www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation
    https://www.livingwage.org.uk/news/real-living-wage-care-workers
  4. Deatils of the omission of social care funding in today;s budget announcement: breaking-news-labour-leader-calls-out-chancellor-over-social-cares-omission-from-budget.

 

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