News / Care staff dismayed at SIC rota changes
STAFF and management hope to resolve a dispute over rotas at care homes in Shetland next Tuesday, after unions claimed the local authority was failing to act like an equal opportunities employer.
Shetland Islands Council is currently consulting on 20 per cent budget cuts to its £20 million social care budget, which will include the loss of 25 full time equivalent community care posts.
While managers have been described as “generally constructive”, the unions say they are disappointed the two sides have hit an impasse over new rotas for more than 200 mostly part time shift workers at the council’s care homes throughout the isles.
Union negotiators say proposals for day staff to work from 7.30am until 10pm are unfair, only allowing them nine and a half hours between shifts.
Day staff have put forward their own proposals to shorten the day shift and extend the night shift by two hours.
Local government union Unison is now surveying members affected by the changes, after which it said it would be “actively considering its position”.
However on Friday interim community care director Simon Bokor Ingram said he would be meeting unions for the first time next Tuesday, during which he hoped they could resolve their differences.
“Looking at (the union’s proposal) in some detail it looks like a reasonable proposal, but I want to meet with the union and I hope that we will have a positive dialogue,” he said.
The crucial issue was assessing the risks involved, especially regarding the period of overlap between day and night shifts, he said.
Meanwhile Unison branch chairman Brian Smith questioned whether the council was treating its full time ferrymen and its part time mostly female care staff equally.
“The way the council’s management has dealt with this is disappointing,” he said.
“The union’s proposal is based on people’s practical experience of working in care homes. It is not theoretical and it would cost exactly the same as the council’s proposal.
“The ferry review involved proper detailed consultation and negotiation with ferry representatives which resulted in options with regard to rotas being given to them.
“Given that the council regards itself as an equal opportunities employer it’s very difficult to understand why these two groups of staff are being treated in such different ways.”
One care worker said that already low levels of staff morale had sunk to “rock bottom” as a result of the negotiations. “If they don’t treat their staff well and cut everything back to the statutory minimum, you can imagine how much less they care about the folk they look after,” she said.
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