Alternative Futures Group to impose pay cut on care workers

Not content with forcing vulnerable adults into moves that they don’t necessarily want, Alternative Futures Group has announced its intention to attack the pay, terms and conditions of the ~1,800 support workers in its employ.

In addition to lowering the hourly rate paid to support workers by up to 6.45%, the proposed pay structures may include a reduction in the bank holiday enhancement from double time to time and a half (at the new, lower hourly rate, of course) and a reduction in the amount paid for sleep-in shifts of up to 37.5%. AFG claims that it needs to do this in order to make up for funding cuts by social services, but continues to pay its top level managers six figure salaries, which it insists are “within normal market rates”.

In order to justify these attacks, AFG have launched a sham consultation process, where appointed employee representatives attend meetings with senior management and ask questions, which management routinely brush aside or dodge. The minutes of these meetings are no longer available to employee representatives or support staff for undisclosed reasons.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little prospect of Unison taking any action over this, as they have point blank refused to hold a ballot for action, despite having been completely shut out of the consultation process. If support workers at AFG want to fight against the slashing of our terms and conditions, it seems we will have to organise it for ourselves.

Update: This post seems to have attracted some attention from AFG employees, if you work in social care and want to have your voice heard, e-mail us at [email protected], any communication will be treated in the strictest confidence.