They will be on strike on Saturday 11 August. Come to the protest in Victoria Sq from 12 noon till 2.30pm.
The 280 staff work for the ‘enablement service’ which helps vulnerable and elderly people regain their independence at home after a spell in hospital.
They have been in dispute with the city council over new working patterns since last year and have lined up a series of strikes. However the Council managers are now saying many could be made redundant if they don’t agree to all jobs being part time which will lead to a loss of earnings for many of the 280 workers.
The Birmingham Post reports:
Staff will either work 14, 21 or 22.5 hours, meaning full timers will given a choice of taking reduced hours, taking redundancy or moving to another job within the city council.
A union source said: “Having only just seen the detail we will consider our response in full. But from what we have seen our members are going to be furious about this.”
Council bosses claim the changes will make the service more productive and save £2 million a year.
Labour council cabinet member for health and social care Paulette Hamilton said the service is currently very inefficient.
The changes will be put to the Labour Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, July 31 for approval and are outlined in a report to the meeting.
At the same time the Council are spending £12million on consultants to tell them how to merge the service with NHS services in 2019/20. Unison believes that this move is in part to prepare for privatisation of both services and it must be opposed. The race to the bottom in the sector has to end today.
See the Birmingham Post report at https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/regional-affairs/birmingham-social-care-workers-told-14943899
Birmingham Against The Cuts 