Care staff are urging Labour to back their campaign for a £15 minimum wage.

At the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow today carers union reps in the city are calling on the party to support the  drive for apay rise over and above what the Scottish Government is offering from April.

The care workers are to get a pay rise o £10.50 per hour from next month.

Shona Thomson, GMB Glasgow Health & Social Care Partnership Branch Convenor, said a £15 per hour minimum wage is needed as soon as possible to tackle understaffing and the cost-of-living crisis.

Labour is backing a rise to £12 an hour and then to £15 at a later unspecified date.

Ms Thomson said: “Our social care members face an understaffing crisis in their services and a cost-of-living crisis in their personal lives, and if politicians want to seriously confront both then pay must be a priority.

Glasgow Times:

 “The Scottish Government’s £10.50 an hour minimum from April 1st isn’t nearly enough to recruit or retain the people the sector desperately needs or help our members tackle soaring inflation and energy bills.

 “We can’t wait for the creation of a National Care Service to deliver proper value for these key workers, this needs to happen as soon as possible.

 “Pay must be the priority, and that’s why everyone should back the “Fight for Fifteen.”

Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, is to unveil a plan to “transform” social care.

Glasgow Times:

It includes free residential care for over 65s to free capacity in the NHS and the pledge to “work towards” increasing care staff wages to £15 an hour.

Sarwar will tell the conference: “This will be the single greatest reform of the care service since the introduction of free personal care. 

 “But we don’t have to wait until 2026. We can take steps right now to set us on track for all care in Scotland to be free at point of need, delivering a health and care system which people can rely on their whole lives.”