The Care Workers’ Charity has welcomed the unveiling of the Employment Rights Bill, which introduces key changes aimed at improving the rights and protections of care workers and other low-paid workers.
Karolina Gerlich, CEO of The Care Workers Charity, commented: "It is good to see changes to statutory sick pay with the removal of the lower earnings limit and waiting period; care workers should not have to choose between their health and being able to pay their bills. Additionally, it is encouraging to see improvements in access to parental, paternity, and bereavement leave. We cannot ask people to care for our loved ones while denying them the opportunity to do the same for their own families. However, we must now look at rates of sick pay that better reflect earnings so that care workers do not have to rely on applications to charities such as ours when they need to take time off work due to ill health.
"We are also pleased to see the broad definition of social care workers, given the diverse range of roles and contracts within the sector. It is encouraging that it appears that all care workers, regardless of contract type or employer, are covered under this legislation and it is not limited to employees of registered providers.
“Moving forward, we are interested in more information about the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body. It will be critical to see who is appointed to this and to ensure that frontline care workers' voices are central to these negotiations. It is positive that pay, and conditions are being discussed and with today’s Skills for Care annual report showing 131,000 vacancies, it is clear action is needed. As one of the largest voices for care workers, we want to be part of these discussions, bringing the perspective of our Care Worker Advisory Board and Champions and the thousands of care workers we are in contact with annually. We must increase pay for care workers and ensure there is funding put into the sector to support this. This bill is an important first phase. However, much more needs to be done and we remain committed to advocating for better rights, fair pay, and the well-being of all care workers across the UK."
