Councillors are set to vote on back pay for South Lanarkshire home carers next week after a successful appeal by the workers.

On Wednesday, members of the Executive Committee will be asked to approve a figure of £18 million. 

This comes after members established in June a basis for backdating the job evaluation outcome for home carers to October 2020.

It follows a successful appeal that led to an increase of at least £3 an hour for the workers after trade unions fought the council’s initial decision to reject the carers’ pay increase.

A job evaluation conducted last year by South Lanarkshire Council was challenged by unions such as UNISON and GMB who requested that the council re-examine the grade of the jobs as they had changed significantly since the pandemic.

Members of UNISON and GMB demonstrated on numerous occasions outside of the council’s headquarters to demand the pay increase.

And following a successful appeal in May, the council decided to increase wages, meaning home care staff across the area will now be paid the same hourly rate as staff working in residential homes.

This means workers across South Lanarkshire will earn at least £16.42 per hour and this will be backdated to October when the appeal first began.

The back pay for home carers will depend on the length of time an employee has been in post since October 2020, and also whether the employee is in the pension scheme, or has worked overtime.

There are also staff who have left, but who will be entitled to claim back pay for the period of time they worked since the start of October 2020.

A detailed estimate of £18 million has been made of the overall costs of back pay for current staff and leavers, and this will be paid in the September pay on September 1.