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Nurses take to picket lines at Bristol-based care home provider

St Monica Trust nursing and care staff picket outside two sites after reported pay cuts and changes to working conditions

St Monica Trust nursing and care staff picket outside two sites after reported pay cuts and changes to working conditions

Nurses and care workers at a care provider have taken to the picket line in another round of strikes over ‘fire and rehire threats’ and reported pay cuts.

Staff who work for Bristol-based St Monica Trust’s Somerset care home walked out for 48 hours on Tuesday (16 August), while workers at Cote Lane care home in Bristol will launch a two-day strike from Friday, 19 August.

Pay slashed and other issues

It comes after some long-serving staff members faced salary cuts of more than £3,000 a year under the plans, with weekend rates for senior workers slashed by 21% while other staff were asked to take a 10% pay cut as part of what Unison described as a ‘fire and rehire’ strategy.

The union said striking staff also face a 50% cut to sick pay and reductions in working hours, after bosses are said to have imposed unpaid breaks during shifts.

Issues raised by staff at other homes run by the trust include trainee nursing associates being used in place of qualified nurses.

Staff employed by the trust previously took part in five days of strike action outside care homes in June and July across Gloucestershire, Somerset and Bath.

Not the way to keep workers

Unison South West regional secretary Joanne Kaye called for the trust to ‘put residents and staff before balance sheets’.

‘St Monica Trust has been asked repeatedly by Unison to meet for talks but the charity simply refuses. It’s been over four months since they came to the table,’ she said.

‘Many staff don’t know if they’ll be able to feed their families as the cost of living crisis bites. Slashing wages and threatening employees is not the way to keep experienced, committed workers.’

St Monica Trust chief executive David Williams said that more than 92% of its care home staff have accepted the proposed changes, which were implemented across its care homes on 1 July.

He said: ‘Our care home services will be running as normal, as they have done throughout the previous days of strike action.

‘We would question Unison’s motives for calling this unwarranted and unnecessary strike action. From our conversations with ACAS, even they have said that they have no role to play in this dispute, as such an overwhelming proportion of care home colleagues have accepted the new contracts.’


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