Care workers’ payments are preserved

Care workers at Southampton City Council have succeeded in delaying the removal of enhanced payments for working antisocial hours.

Two-thirds of the council’s care staff – about 240 workers – held two walkouts in February after they were handed redundancy notices and offered new contracts that did not include payments for late-night, weekend and bank-holiday work.

The move, designed to save the council £400,000 a year, would have reduced the workers’ annual earnings by up to £7,000 in some cases.

With a third strike planned and a local newspaper having taken up the care workers’ cause, the council agreed to talks with local government unions UNISON and the T&G through the conciliation service ACAS, which resulted in a deal to protect the enhanced payments for existing staff while the system is gradually phased out.

UNISON branch secretary Mike Tucker described the seven-hour negotiations as “difficult” but said he was pleased to have made progress and agreed the proposals, which were being put to the two unions’ members as Workplace Report went to press.