GMB Scotland warns far right will exploit pay gap in care
A pay gap between foreign care workers and Scots colleagues will be exploited by the hard right to fuel division, according to GMB Scotland.
The union fears higher minimum salaries for overseas workers in social care will be weaponised by far-right parties demanding tougher curbs on immigration.
UK-wide changes came into force last month meaning social care workers recruited from abroad or applying to extend an existing visa must earn at least £12.82 an hour.
However, the minimum social wage for British workers is £12.60, around £500 a year less, and Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, fears the gap will be seized on by the far-right.
She has now written to the First Minister calling for an emergency pay award to lift the minimum wage for all social care workers across the sector.
Gilmour said: “It is beyond argument that every care worker in Scotland should be paid more but the imposition of a two tier system makes a bad situation far worse.
“It is unfair, untenable and, if allowed to continue, corrosive in a sector that is already buckling.
“There is a clear risk of it being exploited to stoke division and inflame tensions by those with ill-intent towards immigrants.”
Gilmour said a recruitment and retention crisis across social care has been driven by low pay and poor conditions and Scotland needs workers from overseas to bolster crucial services.
However, she added: “The visa system must no longer be a tool for unscrupulous private care providers to exploit workers from overseas.
“That will demand a far greater recognition and fairer reward for all care staff wherever they come from.
“We need and welcome overseas care workers to Scotland but they should not be used to underpin disgracefully low pay and poor conditions in social care.
“All care staff, wherever they are from, are essential workers, among the most essential we have, and that must be reflected in improved pay, terms and conditions across the sector.”
In her letter to first minister John Swinney, Gilmour said his recent summit intended to tackle the rise of the far-right may have been well-intentioned but must be followed by effective action.
She said: “Acting swiftly to close this unfair pay gap is exactly the kind of practical politics that will turn Scots away from populists and opportunists blaming others for Scotland’s problems.
“Working Scots need meaningful action and policies that make a difference to their lives today instead of repeated promises of better things tomorrow.”
Gilmour’s letter highlights a series of broken promises to social care workers from the stalled progress towards a £15 an hour minimum wage and the abandoned plans for a National Care Service to the £36 million to fund a national sick pay scheme that was never delivered.
She said: “Those workers deserve far more than warm words. They need support.
“Ministers claiming to understand the problems mean nothing if they cannot or will not deliver solutions.
“Addressing the crisis in our social care sector will be a long journey but one that starts with small, achievable steps.
“The first is to close this pay gap, the second is to introduce sectoral bargaining, and the third is to deliver fairer pay and better conditions.”
GMB Scotland has urged ministers to convene an emergency summit attended by unions and care providers with an immediate and clear commitment to increase the minimum wage to £12.82 an hour backdated to 9 April when the new visa rules came into force.
