Plymouth City Council has become the latest local authority to sign up to UNISON’s ethical care charter today (Monday).
Council leaders joined UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis to formally sign the charter at Ballard House this afternoon.
The charter commits the Council to continue working with the city’s care companies to help them end zero-hours and reflect travel time between home care visits in care workers’ pay.
Councillors have also pledged to work with local care firms to help them pay the real living wage – currently £8.75 an hour – to all their employees.
Commenting about the signing, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Committing to decent employment conditions for care workers is vital to improving the quality of life for the people they look after.
“Care workers do some of the most important work in the country and they should be treated with respect.
“By signing UNISON’s ethical care charter, Plymouth City Council is leading the way in the South West, hopefully other councils will follow its example soon.”
Leader of Plymouth City Council Tudor Evans OBE said: “I am delighted to sign the ethical care charter, which reaffirms our commitment to supporting and recognising the valuable role of all those fantastic people in our city who work in care.”
Cabinet member for health and adult social care councillor Ian Tuffin said: “As one of the main commissioners of care and support work for Plymouth, we want to ensure that our hard working and dedicated care staff get the recognition they deserve.
“It’s four years since we introduced our domiciliary care contracts. These ensured staff would be paid at least the living wage, visits were at least 30 minutes long, staff had guaranteed hours and were paid for their travel time.
“At the time we were one of the few authorities to do this – the ethical care charter signals our intention to continue maintaining high standards in care.”
