Care workers to strike for first time in over a decade

Care staff are to go on strike in a pay dispute later this month, in the first national care walkout in more than a decade.

Enable Scotland staff will take action across five days in different regions, beginning on 29 May in East Renfrewshire and continuing in Aberdeenshire, Moray, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The strikes will conclude with a march and rally at the Scottish Parliament on 12 June.

The Unison union said the move was in response to "years of broken promises and delays" by the Scottish government regarding reform and funding of social care.

A spokesperson for the union said Scottish government ministers had "consistently let down" care workers.

It has agreed "life and limb" cover with the employer during the strike.

Anna Baird, a Unison member and a personal assistant with Enable Scotland for eight years, said: "I love my job and the people I support, that's why this decision was so hard. But we're at breaking point.

"We've been made promises for years, but nothing changes.

"Our pay doesn't reflect the responsibility we carry and many of us are struggling to make ends meet. We're just asking to be valued for the vital work we do."

Unison Scotland regional organiser Jennifer McCarey said "not a single promise" had been kept by ministers and that care workers pay pay was now worse.

She added: "The care sector is in crisis, and that responsibility lies squarely with the Scottish government. Until care workers are properly valued and paid fairly, the sector will never have the care workers it needs."

The Scottish government's Social Care Minister Maree Todd said negotiations were a matter for trade unions and employers and that she hoped a fair deal for both parties would be reached.

She added: "Our 2025-26 Scottish Budget provides an additional £125m to enable adult social care workers, delivering direct care in commissioned services, to be paid at least the real living wage of £12.60 an hour.

"This takes our total investment in improving social care pay to £950m."

News of the strike came as Todd told MSPs she expected more care services to close in Scotland as a result of UK government policies.

She claimed increases to national insurance contributions and plans to cut overseas workers were "reckless" and "devastating" for the sector.