Care workers miss out
Care workers in the charity sector should be made eligible for the £500 “thank you” payment from the Scottish Government alongide NHS staff.
The one-off £500 payment was announced late last year as a thank you to frontline and key workers for their duties throughout the pandemic.
Martin McElroy, Labour councillor for Glasgow Springburn and Robroyston, has written to health secretary Jeanne Freeman to demand that all frontline workers are treated fairly.
The payment is available to all NHS staff, including porters and hospice workers, who were employed from March 17 last year.
But services that are not registered by the care watchdog will be ineligible to claim for the payments on behalf of their staff.
It means that despite providing care to vulnerable people throughout the pandemic, workers - including those from the third sector - will miss out.
McElroy said: “I’ve been contacted by a number of constituents who feel let down by the SNP.
“These frontline staff have gone above and beyond during the past year, and they fully expected to be entitled to the £500 Covid payment in recognition for their hard work.
“They are working in social care and should be entitled to the same treatment.
“Now, it appears that they are missing out on a technicality. It is not good enough, we need the politicians in Edinburgh to fix their own mess and make sure that frontline staff get what they are entitled to.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The pro-rata £500 thank you payment is for NHS and Adult Social Care staff, and over 300,000 people will be eligible for this.
“We are hugely grateful to the efforts over recent months of the many key workers in different sectors across Scotland as they have risen to the challenge of responding to the pandemic.
"For people working for private employers, it would be for their employer to determine their remuneration and any additions to existing pay which may be appropriate for these staff.”
Many charities worked throughout the pandemic assisting people who have long term conditions and a caring role. The "third sector" was paramount in working in partnership with HSCP to provide services, otherwise the results of the pandemic for NHS would have been worse than it is, which is bad enough! I have no problem in NHS staff being awarded a bonus for their hard work, just get annoyed that yet again the "Third Sector" who is an important partner is not recognised in the same way ever. We do not get discounts on shopping, holidays, insurance etc , we do not get bonuses, we do not get overtime only toil for working evenings and weekends. Try being in this sector, I'm sure you would see the difference.