Wirral UNISON held a protest on Friday outside The Old Garden Care Home, Hoylake over their failure to pay Care Workers the Real Living Wage or Full Sick Pay.
The Old Garden brands itself as a luxury care home, and charges luxury prices, but pay Care staff at the Home the bare minimum wage, £8.72/hr. The Real Living Wage, which Wirral Council has recently supported, is currently £9.30/hr.
Care Workers at The Old Garden, who have been off as a result of Covid-19 receive only SSP of £95.85 per week. That is shortfall for many of up to £300 a week. This is despite The Old Garden receiving extra funding from the Council to cover in part, the cost of providing full sick pay.
As a result Care Workers at this luxury home are surviving on food parcels which is not acceptable.
A Care Worker at the home said “I don’t understand... they are getting more money than any other care home, how dare they plead poverty. I am disgusted that they do not value the staff as much as the residents families do! (it’s) not somewhere I want to be, but thankfully, the people I work with are amazing…absolutely awesome! And the residents appreciate them! We are a good team but we deserve proper pay.”
Lois Founds, Wirral UNISON Deputy Branch Secretary said “Our Care Worker members in Wirral do a fantastic job and have continued to do this throughout this pandemic; they deserve to be properly paid for the work they do. They should also receive full pay if they are off sick, because statutory sick pay of £95.85 a week is simply not enough to live on. The Old Garden has refused to engage with UNISON and refuses to implement the funding given to them, as intended when staff are off sick. We felt we had no option but to publicly protest against the Old Garden today. They brand themselves as a luxury establishment but staff pay does not reflect this- far from it- it’s poverty pay and we wont accept it!”
Published on: June 29, 2020