Following a ballot, workers who support people with learning disabilities at a home in Enfield have begun a series of one-day-a-week strikes after the failure of negotiations to increase their pay from the minimum wage of £8.21 per hour to the London Living Wage (LLW) of £10.55 per hour.
The care support workers are employees of the Care Management Group (CMG) based at 98 and 100 Pembroke Avenue and are members of the BCSA trade union.
According to the union, CMG state that they cannot increase the pay as they do not have the money in their budget, which is funded from the Council, who have refused to cover the extra costs.
Ted Purcell, National Organiser at BCSA, commented:
"Enfield Council have a duty of care to ensure that its contractors have the money in their budget to pay the small percentage increase to ensure their staff working for CMG are on a fair pay rate, i.e. LLW. Our members work hard to deliver the care to this industry and without them these patients would not receive the quality of life that they deserve. Our members are frustrated and fed up with receiving the minimum wage to carry out this job."
