THE ONGOING ROW OVER PAY AT A CARE HOME AS STAFF STAGE PROTEST

Salford’s deputy city mayor has stepped in to try to resolve a row at a care home over a delay in paying the real living wage to its staff and a host of other grievances.

The workers at the Heartly Green facility in Irlam staged a protest outside the home early on Friday morning (September 15) backed by their representatives  from the Unison union and deputy mayor Coun John Merry, who is also the city’s lead member for adult services.

A meeting took place later on Friday between management and some 60 staff at the home, but Unison representatives were not allowed in.

Heartly Green was taken over by Bradford-based Park Homes in October 2021. Unison branch organiser Jack Hannam Pearson said there had been ‘a marked decline’ in conditions for both staff and residents since the takeover.

He said: “Recent issues include un-contractual deductions of pay for breaks and mandatory training, as well as the employer’s failure to pass all of the recent Foundation Living Wage uplift on to staff, with many staff being owed significant sums of money.

“There have also been issues for residents of the home, where there have been leaks in bedrooms which have gone unfixed.”

Addressing the assembled care workers outside the home, Coun Merry said: “I don’t want to say too much, in case I am accused by Park Homes of prejudging the issues, but the fact remains that some of their behaviour is totally unacceptable.

“One of the things we [the city council] did was to implement the real living wage. The fact that this has been delayed here is absolutely appalling. 

“We made sacrifices in terms of the council budget and other services in order to ensure that you got properly paid.

“To actually just hold off on paying that is not acceptable to the council and it’s something we intend to chase up and make sure that it’s done.

“I wanted Matthew [Dickinson, another Unison branch organiser] in the meeting that you’re going to be having at 10am, but unfortunately they didn’t seem able to agree to that. I would’ve thought that that would’ve shown a degree of commitment on their part to the union and to proper negotiations.”

Speaking separately to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Coun Merry said: “It should never have reached stage. Park Homes should have negotiated property about some of the issues involved.

“The problem is the workforce doesn’t entirely trust them. Hopefully, we can resolve some of these issues, but I hope Park Homes can demonstrate that they are trustworthy. I am anxious to get this sorted out really.”

Responding to the allegations, Park Homes’ executive director of operations Phil Benson said: “We have recently introduced a new payroll and rostering system which has brought to light an issue with automatic deduction of paid breaks for some colleagues who it would appear have been paid breaks historically or have contractual entitlement. 

“This is a regrettable error on our part, and we are actively working with colleagues to ensure this is immediately corrected and resolved so it doesn’t happen again.”

He said that while that issue was being explored, further complaints from staff came to light regarding unpaid mandatory training.

Mr Benson continued: “This is an error on our part as all training at Heartly Green should be paid and we will actively work to resolve this for any affected members of staff.

“We pay our employees at Heartly Green the real living wage and implemented this on April 19 2023 which was our first pay period after April 1. 

“This is what the official guidelines advised we do. However, Salford city council has asked us to make this change from April 3 which we are fixing for this current pay period.

 “We are fully committed to resolving all of these issues for our colleagues and will actively work with all stakeholders to ensure a full resolution for affected team members.

“We have been continuously engaging with staff individually and at a group level and have offered to meet with them regularly and will continue to do so until we fully resolve these issues.”

Mr Benson continued by saying that Park Homes ‘does not formally recognise unions’. “Despite asking for a meeting informally with them to discuss issues, they declined,” he said.

“The meeting on Friday at 10am was not just about the issues staff had expressed but was also a general staff meeting which unions wouldn’t ever be invited to. We had to update the home on changes of leadership and changes and reminders of ways of working.

“In respect of the leaking ceiling, I have investigated this and would like to apologise that this wasn’t picked up quickly enough, our way of working that we have re-introduced to the home will ensure that the facilities ticketing system is used by the staff at the home to alert the central facilities team to any issues which require repair so they can book respective contractors to attend the service”.