Thousands of care staff in Wales will see their pay and working conditions improved thanks to a major step forward by unions including UNISON.
A body known as the Social Care Workforce Partnership (SCWP) has been created to improve pay and conditions for tens of thousands of undervalued care workers.
The SCWP is a group made up of employers and unions who will sit down with Welsh government and negotiate pay and conditions from sick pay to travel time for care workers.
UNISON hopes care workers, the majority of whom are women, will see direct benefits in pay levels for all roles in care work from Anglesey to Aberdare, from those looking after dementia sufferers to children in care homes.
The SCWP will also focus on major issues such as sick pay, time off for training, travel time, sleep in rates and best practice on rota changes.
UNISON Cymru/Wales care lead Mark Turner has been nominated to represent UNISON in the SCWP and said: “In time, we see this as being a role for care worker members themselves, giving employers and government a view direct from the front line.
“This is about improving living standards and value placed upon care workers first and foremost.
“It’s also about giving back the collective voice stolen from them since the sector was outsourced a generation ago.
‘We’re in difficult times in terms of public spending, so no doubt this may be a slow process.
“Of course, independent employers, in the main, are not used to working with trades unions or negotiating, so it’ll be a tentative and tricky birth and will probably require ‘baby steps’ at first.
“We already aim to start with basic HR policies which will give assurances to care workers, especially in small employers- and that will be a platform for direct and meaningful change.
“Ultimately care workers need to join a trade union, UNISON, to ensure measures negotiated in the SCWP are applied in their workplace.”
