'Scandal': Glasgow care worker pleads with firm for better sick pay during pandemic

It comes one month after Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced that social care workers in Scotland would be guaranteed better sick pay during the outbreak.

The care worker – who did not wish to be named – told how she and more than 20 of her colleagues struggled to make ends meet while off sick with suspected or confirmed coronavirus as they lived on the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) of £94 a week.

READ MORE: Social care workers to be ensured better sick pay

As other care companies in Scotland have rolled-out full pay for employees who are out of action due to the virus, the Advinia Healthcare worker is demanding her employer do the same. 

She told the Glasgow Times: “Advinia are just basically digging their heels in and saying no. They’re completely refusing to acknowledge that GMB is a union, refusing them into the homes and refusing them to represent the staff. 

“Any time that they’re being sent emails by the union, they’re rejecting them. They’re refusing to communicate with staff at all. We’ve had no mental health support through this crisis either. 

“The little thing that we thought that they would do is pay their staff more than Statutory Sick Pay. 

“We’ve been disregarded and there has been no thank-you at all. It has been so hard being up against this virus.

“We’re already paid the basic minimum living wage, so I don’t understand how we are expected to live from £94 a week when we are off sick with coronavirus with no choice of our own.”

Before a union campaign to roll out full sick pay for social workers achieved victory last month, one Glasgow care worker told us how they were financially “terrified” of showing symptoms of the virus as they would need to live on SSP while self-isolating. 

READ MORE: Poor sick pay forcing Glasgow care staff to avoid coronavirus testing

The Advinia Healthcare worker added: “My bills don’t change, my output doesn’t change, yet I need to try to find the money because I decided to go to work and do my job and unfortunately contracted 
coronavirus. 

“I would imagine for people who have worse circumstances that me and are worse-off than me, they would feel obliged to go to work even if they felt ill. It needs to change.”

Local MSP Anne McLaughlin has said she has had a “number” of complaints of this nature from Advinia Care Home workers.

READ MORE: Coronavirus has proven statutory sick pay is not fit for purpose

She said: “I’ve had a number of Advinia Healthcare workers coming to me with the same story. 

“Some are apparently being given full pay at the managers’ discretion. That’s not acceptable. Everyone should be treated the same, but more importantly, people literally putting their health and potentially their lives at risk to provide care for very vulnerable people should not then be penalised financially if they succumb to coronavirus. 

“I understand the company is owned by a billionaire. Perhaps they could use a tiny fraction of those billions to instead award bonuses for those absolutely essential workers.”

GMB Scotland organiser Kirsty Nimmo said: “Care is the crisis within a crisis, the sickness and fatality levels in our care homes are horrendous, so the very least private care workers should expect is that they will receive full pay if they fall ill or must isolate with symptoms of coronavirus. 

“Let’s be clear, SSP is less than £96 a week and the vast majority of these workers receive the living wage and no more – they struggle to make work pay at the best of times and they cannot afford to fall ill. If they do, they will be destitute. 

“That a provider like Advinia is refusing to provide full pay for all staff that fall ill is a scandal, and that they may be taking a ‘pick and mix’ approach to this payment is very likely to be discriminatory. They can be assured that GMB will be knocking on their door.

“GMB is taking on the care operators who are not only treating their workers deplorably but are also undermining the collective effort to tackle this public health crisis. 

“It’s not rocket science that any testing regime is undermined if people cannot afford not to work. 

“And if the country’s biggest care home operator, HC-One, can ensure all their workers will receive full pay if they fall sick with coronavirus, then there is no excuse for firms like Advinia to dodge their responsibilities to their workers, their service users, and to the communities they should be serving far better. 

“What this crisis continues to expose is the underlying diseases plaguing our care sector: low pay, precarious employment, and excessive working hours – the exploitation of a predominantly female workforce. 

“A terrible price is being paid but change will come and firms like Advinia can either be part of the problem or part of the solution.” 

An Advinia Healthcare spokesman said: "We are proud of our hardworking, dedicated colleagues and fully honour their contracts, in terms of pay and conditions.

"They have gone above and beyond during this crisis and we are doing everything we can to support them, as they in turn support our residents.

"We are thankful to the Scottish government for the invaluable support that they have provided to those care homes that have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, when the consequent pressure on budgets has been incredibly tight.

"Alongside this support we recently announced our own intervention - the launch of the Wagestream service. This allows our colleagues to draw down an advance on their pay from the following month directly via their mobile phone into their bank account, avoiding alternate high cost, short-term ‘pay-day’ loans and overdrafts.

"We welcome discussion from all our stakeholders, and we have already engaged with the GMB on a range of issues."