GMB Scotland Women's Campaign Unit Blog

Megan Fisher of GMB Scotland’s Women’s Campaign Unit makes the case for a significant minimum wage increase in Scotland’s social care sector.

Almost all of us have been impacted by COVID-19; we have lost people and we have seen our colleagues get sick. It has been a dark time and it is still a very scary time to be on the front line. But GMB members continue to report for work to provide essential services because 2 years ago, we saw what happens when essential workers remove their labour: everything stops.

Today marks 10 years since the Equality Act became law. An incredibly important piece of legislation that looked to tackle the many and varied guises discrimination takes but the reality is that any one law will struggle to cover the complicated nature of discrimination.

As society starts to wake up to its failure to recognise the value of women’s work, paid and unpaid, do we need to revisit the laws that should provide the foundation to our legal and industrial battles?

Show You Care began with the idea that we needed a credible piece of work to reinforce and amplify our members’ voices and experiences that are the reality for those working in social care.

The report concluded as the largest and most comprehensive engagement with frontline social care workers undertaken in Scotland to date.

We started with one basic question: What are the biggest barriers you face in delivering quality social care in Scotland?

We can be sure that against the backdrop of cuts to public services and a subsequent downturn in consumer spending in retail, the pressure will be on women to sustain services and to put up with our lot. It is never popular to demand what is right when the budget is tight but in fact it is absolutely essential, now more than ever, to fight for equal pay and pay justice.