Dismore presses Mayor on care workers pay; Mayor endorses Unison care workers’ charter- or does he?
I discussed the issue of care workers’ pay and working practices with Mayor Boris Johnson at June’s Mayor’s Question Time.
I asked the Mayor, if he would endorse a charter that said care workers should be paid for their travel time and travel costs, that they should have the freedom to provide appropriate care with time to talk to their clients; that clients should have the same care worker wherever possible, trained to the necessary standard to provide a good service; and that the time allocated to visits should match the needs of the clients.
After the Mayor said that he would, and that care workers should be paid the London Living Wage, he then backed off, when told that this charter had been proposed by the care workers union, Unison.
The Mayor’s response was bizarre. He rightly said that the proposals in the Charter were right, and that care workers should have decent pay. when I then told him it was a Unison plan, and asked him to congratulate Labour boroughs such as Camden, Islington and Southwark for signing up to these principles, and asked him to encourage other councils such as Conservative Barnet to do the same, he would not do so.
‘He also refused to support Barnet’s care staff, transferred to Your Choice Barnet, who have seen their pay cut by almost 10%, other than by saying all care staff should have the London Living Wage.
The Mayor sends out a fine massage, but won’t recognise that might involve endorsing a trades union or Labour Borough.
