A strike at a large Scottish social care charity is to go ahead as staff “have been left with no other option after being consistently let down by ministers”, a workers’ union has said.
Yesterday, UNISON Scotland confirmed that workers at Enable Scotland would strike for five days in a dispute over pay.
It comes after the union, which represents around 600 workers at the charity, announced in March that 93% of Enable Scotland's staff who voted in a ballot supported a call for industrial action.
The union claimed that the move marks the “first national care strike in over a decade” and comes “after years of broken promises and delays by the Scottish government to reform and fund social care properly”.
Enable Scotland said it was “disappointed by the decision to strike”, adding that “significantly enhanced pay beyond the real living wage is entirely dependent on external funding”.
Devolved government ‘must fund charitable care properly’
The five-day strike will take place in different regions of Scotland, starting on 29 May in East Renfrewshire and ending on 12 June in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
UNISON Scotland said it agreed on “life and limb” cover with Enable Scotland during the strike, which guarantees the provision of essential services “to protect those most at risk”.
Jennifer McCarey, regional organiser at UNISON Scotland, said: “Strike action is always a last resort.
“But unions representing care workers have been working with the Scottish government for several years on a plan for social care.
“But not a single promise made by ministers has been kept. In fact, care workers’ pay has gotten worse.
“The care sector is in crisis, and that responsibility lies squarely with the Scottish government. Until care workers are properly valued and paid fairly, the sector will never have the care workers it needs.
“Ministers must fund charitable care properly and act to resolve this issue.”
Anna Baird, a UNISON Scotland member and personal assistant with Enable Scotland, said staff were “at breaking point”.
“We’ve been made promises for years, but nothing changes. Our pay doesn’t reflect the responsibility we carry and many of us are struggling to make ends meet. We’re just asking to be valued for the vital work we do.”
‘Enhanced pay dependent on external funding’
A spokesperson for the social care charity said: “We are disappointed by the decision to strike, but we’re working positively with UNISON on our shared principle of minimising the adverse impact of this action on the people we support.
“Significantly enhanced pay beyond the real living wage is entirely dependent on external funding.”
They added that Enable Scotland would welcome “a national pay settlement for the charity sector social care workforce which is on a par with pay deals for care workers in the public sector”.
Scotland’s social care minister Maree Todd said that while the devolved government values the “vital” role social care workers play, “pay negotiations are a matter for trade unions and employers”.
“I urge both parties to continue to work together to reach an agreement which is fair for the workforce and affordable for Enable Scotland,” she said.
“Our 2025-26 Scottish budget provides an additional £125m to enable adult social care workers, delivering direct care in commissioned services, to be paid at least the real living wage of £12.60 an hour.
“This takes our total investment in improving social care pay to £950m.”
Todd added that the UK government’s recently announced plans to end international recruitment of care workers “will be devastating for the care sector in Scotland and across the UK”.
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