GMB fear massive wage cuts for care home staff in Ealing
GMB call on Labour group in Ealing Council to avert pay cuts for lower paid women workers in outsourced care homes.
Viridian’s proposal to reduce the pay of low paid workers is unacceptable in order to maintain the viability of the PFI contract says GMB London.
GMB, the union for Ealing Care Home staff, has learned Viridian Housing, who run four care homes in the borough, are proposing to cut wages for domestic, laundry and housekeeping staff and care workers from between 5% and 18%.
GMB London have written to Viridian Housing to advise them that the terms of the PFI Contract they have with Ealing council require them to notify and enter into meaningful consultations with GMB on the proposals. The position that Viridian have embarked on is diametrically opposed to the terms of the PFI Contract.
Keith Williams, GMB London senior organiser said “Working people have just endured the longest wage squeeze since Victorian times. Viridian’s proposal to reduce the pay of low paid workers, the majority of whom are female, is unacceptable in order to maintain the viability of the PFI contract that Viridian entered into.
GMB members, like everybody else, are already treading water in order to stay afloat in respect to the increasing inflation and consumer prices and to incur a pay cut of that magnitude, can only bring added pressure to what is already a difficult and stressful time to everyone’s purse strings, as working people have just endured.
GMB call on the labour group in Ealing council to step in and avert the pay cuts for the lower paid women workers in the Viridian run care homes.”
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Contact: Keith Williams 07710 631339, Dean Gilligan 07877 775534
Notes to editors
1 Viridian Housing run the following care homes in Ealing:
Sycamore Lodge, 1 Edgecote Close, Acton, W3 8HP
Martin House, 1 Swift Road, Southall, UB2 4RP
Chestnut Lodge, 3 Woodfield Road, Ealing, W5 1SL
Elm Lodge, 4A Marley Close, Greenford UB6 9UG
2 For year ending 31 March 2016 the group had an operating surplus of £37.6m
3 Nick Apetroaie, Chief Executive, total salary including pension contributions and expense allowance was £182,748, up from 159,370 in 2015.
4 Matt Campion, the Operations Director leading the change saw his salary increase by 13.8% in 2016 from £118,555 to £134,895.
