Faced with council cuts, social care companies are slashing working conditions for low-paid staff. Enough is enough.

I have worked as a night support worker in Sirona – a social care company – for about 10 years. And in that time I’ve seen how government cost cutting to care providers gets passed down to the lowest paid workers.

I’ve been an agency worker, a ‘bank’ worker filling in shifts, and now I’m a permanent member of staff. Most of us earn little more than the minimum wage – a fact that makes any cuts all the more damaging.

Sirona has been left with a £215,000 gap because Bath & North East Somerset council’s cut to their funding. We understand Sirona are trying to make the accounts balance. But their ‘solution’ is unacceptable.

The company want to add a thirty minute unpaid break into shifts – essentially cutting half an hour’s pay. If we don’t want to take a pay cut, we’re told we can “accrue” a thirty minute time debt each shift. Staff would have to pay it back by working extra shifts, essentially for free.

Care workers are being offered an impossible choice. Either keep our hours but lose up to £1200 a year, or work extra time for free – which is a real-terms cut to our hourly rate anyway.

In my case the accrued time would come to another seven shifts per year. Seven shifts on Bank would give me about £756 extra to pay our bills, put food on the table or to even help keep a roof over our heads. Or my other choice is to forfeit these unpaid breaks and lose hundreds of pounds per year, plus enhancements as I work nights.

A lot of my colleagues are worse off than me as some will owe up to sixteen shifts back with the accrued half an hour break.That makes their work/life balance unacceptable.

Some of them will need to pay extra for childcare, some will need to rely on others to care for their elderly parents. Others will have to resort to a food bank just to keep food on the table. Those with so many accrued shifts won’t have the option of working extra to provide for their families as they will be too tired fulfilling their owed back hours.

There are many more unanswered questions about lone working, and the lack of facilities to take a break at work – as well as the fact we are now working just to exist not to live our lives. Despite caring for some of the most vulnerable people, we don’t feel valued. 

This has been going on in our workplace since July 2017. Myself and my colleagues are weary with the stress of wondering what will happen if their plan to cut our pay goes ahead.

I chose to join Unison nearly 4 years ago and now have become a representative so that my Sirona colleagues have a voice that can be heard.

I went and lobbied Jacob Rees Mogg, in whose back yard this strike is happening. I spoke at a rally with Jonathan Ashworth and was proud to get Labour’s support for our strike. My colleagues are getting their friends, family and neighbours to write to their representatives.

But local councillors are still acting like it’s not their problem. For the sake of about £170,000, Bath & North East Somerset council are forcing Sirona into crisis.

We’re using our only card left – a strike – to show the council and Sirona that we might be care workers – but we won’t go quietly.

Bernadette Yea is a Unison union steward at Sirona.

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