The Fair Work Convention warmly welcomes the Scottish Government’s announcement establishing sectoral bargaining for the commissioned adult social care workforce. This is a major step forward. Sectoral bargaining provides a route to improve pay, security and conditions for social care workers across Scotland.
This development marks a breakthrough in embedding fair work in social care following the recommendations of the Fair Work Convention’s 2019 Social Care Sector Inquiry.
Fair Work Convention Co-Chairs Professor Patricia Findlay and Chris Westcott said:
“This is a significant milestone in delivering our 2019 Inquiry recommendations, which highlighted the urgent need to strengthen collective voice, and drive improvements in pay, security and working conditions across the social care workforce.
Advancing sectoral bargaining gives Scotland a real opportunity not only to strengthen fair work in social care, but also to make progress on wider national ambitions, including narrowing the gender pay gap and tackling poverty linked to the undervaluation of a predominantly female workforce.
Providing fair work for social care workers will also help to tackle longstanding problems in the industry around recruitment and retention, improving the service for social care users.”
The Convention recognise that important work remains to finalise the negotiating structure and to take forward talks in the coming year. We are committed to working constructively and at pace with employer bodies, trade unions and the Scottish Government to ensure the mechanism is robust, representative and delivers lasting change.