Home Carers to ballot for action over “No Confidence” in COVID testing roll-out

Home carers in Glasgow City Council’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) will launch a ballot for industrial action next week, warning they have “no confidence” over plans for workplace testing of COVID-19 and amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding the vaccination programme.

Over 1,700 GMB Scotland members will take part in a three-week ballot, running from Tuesday 19 January to Monday 8 February, meaning service delivery in the HSCP could be affected by action as early as the week beginning Monday 22 February.

It follows a massive 93 per cent support for action among GMB members in a consultative ballot last month, a direct response to the Scottish Government’s Winter Preparedness Plan which put home carers to the back of the queue in the roll-out of workplace testing delivery.

GMB Scotland Organiser David Hume said: “There is no confidence whatsoever among our members in their employer or the government to sufficiently protect their health and safety at work. And why should there be?

“They were failed on PPE at the outset of this pandemic, they have been left waiting ten months for workplace testing, and some are already encountering problems getting their first vaccine.

“The HSCP should have been fighting tooth and nail for every resource to protect the safety of their employees and their service users. Instead they have been sitting on zoom calls for nearly a year waiting on guidance from the Scottish Government, only for Ministers to leave councils carrying the can for testing delivery.

“The interests of these key workers have been consistently forgotten and they are being treated negligently by their employer, and this government.”

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davepickering

Edinburgh reporter and photographer

2 thoughts on “Home Carers to ballot for action over “No Confidence” in COVID testing roll-out”

  1. Seems to be NEDN is coming more and more from Glasgow thought this was North Edinburgh News

    1. Hi Yvonne

      I know we have home carer workers living and working in North Edinburgh; I thought this news item may have been of interest to them, in particular. The workers’ concerns may also be an issue for people working in the health and social care sector here in Edinburgh. When we get through this awful pandemic there will be a need to review how it was handled – what we got right and where we went wrong – and the voices of front line workers and their representaatives must be heard.

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