Carers workers working on behalf of Haringey Council could be guaranteed decent sick pay for the first time, if a motion proposed by opposition Liberal Democrat councillors is passed.

A major renegotiation of the Council’s contracts with third parties that provide care workers to help Haringey residents is underway. However, whilst these new contracts will include pay increases for care workers, they only provide for the statutory minimum for sick pay. This is just £95.85 a week, is generally not paid until the fourth day of leave, expires completely after 28 weeks and is not available to many part-time workers. This falls far short of the sick pay the Council offers to staff it directly employs and what is available to workers in equivalent roles in the NHS.

Throughout the outbreak, social care workers have been designated as key workers and data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that not only have over 100 social care workers been killed by Covid-19, but that they faced double the fatality rate of healthcare workers and the general population.

The coronavirus outbreak has also given rise to concerns that poor sick pay provisions for care workers are putting those they care for at risk, as it can make it financially unviable for them not to continue working even when ill with a potentially contagious infection.

In light of these concerns, Haringey Lib Dems are putting forward a motion which would require any company delivering care services on behalf of the Council, to give their workers sick pay equivalent to that offered by the Council to its staff.

It will be debated at a Full Council meeting on Monday, 13th July, which begins at 7:30pm and can be viewed at: https://tinyurl.com/y867xvdv

Cllr Pippa Connor (Muswell Hill), Haringey Lib Dem spokesperson on health and social care, who is proposing the motion comments that:

“The coronavirus crisis has highlighted how vital care workers are, yet as a society we too often try to buy care provision at bargain basement prices. This has to change so that care workers are offered pay and conditions that reflect the true value of their work. Haringey should set an example by making sure all the care providers that they work with pay decent sick pay. This would be safer, fairer and what we owe all the care workers who work in our care and nursing homes to keep our vulnerable residents healthy at such difficult times.”