A Lanarkshire-based charity has been exposed for paying staff as little as £2.50 an hour to care for people with learning disabilities.

 

Bosses at Enable Scotland also cancelled payments for volunteers working during the festive period.

The charity celebrated its 60th anniversary last year and its backers include the Duchess of Kent and Bridget McConnell, wife of former First Minister Lord Jack McConnell.

A recent annual report boasts that the board "believe that a competitive salary alongside a fair and appropriate set of terms and conditions is critical...to ensuring our support staff know that the vital work they do is recognised and valued by the charity".

Public documents show that the charity's business arm, which provides care for hundreds of people with learning disabilities, reported a budget surplus of £45,000 last year, as income increased by 4.8% to almost £28m.

However Enable Scotland's board is embroiled in a bitter internal battle with employees over poor pay and conditions.

Trade union Unison has stepped in after it emerged some members working as care assistants overnight in the homes of disabled people are earning only £2.50 per hour - four pounds less than the national minimum wage.

The pay reflects the number of hours staff were physically working, rather than the time they were on duty.

A shop steward who works for Enable questioned the rate of pay in an email to management seen by the Sunday Herald.

He wrote: "I have received a number of queries from my colleagues regarding sleepover payments. Most did not think they were being paid the right rate."

The email concludes by urging Enable to ensure that the rate of pay is increased and back pay is handed over "at the earliest possible opportunity".

The demand by Unison follows a 2013 Employment Appeal Tribunal judgement which ruled that a senior care assistant who carried out sleepover shifts was entitled to receive the national minimum wage for all night shift hours, regardless of whether or not they were actually working during that time.

One worker at Enable Scotland, who asked not to be named, said: "We're at our place of work and we're often up during the night supporting profoundly disabled people. We're entitled to the national minimum wage and Enable is not paying it.

"The people we care for are extremely vulnerable and if you don't look after the people who look after those people, things will start going downhill.

"I don't know another organisation that would get away with having the terms and conditions that Enable has."

Staff are also angry that additional payments of £50 for working on December 25 and 26 and on January 1 and 2 were unexpectedly withdrawn.

Another member of staff who asked to remain anonymous said: "The rota gets published on December 1 for the rest of the month. On December 3 we got a letter telling everyone that the payment is being withdrawn.

"By that time, many of us had applied to work on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and January 2, thinking we'd get an extra £200.

"Instead we got offered a bottle of Prosecco or a box of chocolates worth about four or five pounds. Most people just told them to keep it.

"A lot of us who applied to work Christmas and New Year had spent that money in our heads, on presents for our families. It's a disgraceful way to treat people."

Dave Moxham who co-chairs the Scottish Living Wage Campaign, which calls on employers to pay a living wage of £7.85 per hour, said: "It is entirely unacceptable that those providing lifeline care services should be receiving what is in effect, less than the minimum wage.

"Recent employment tribunal judgments make it quite clear that those who are contracted to undertake sleepovers, with the expectation that at any time of night they will be required to deliver care, should receive payments during their hours which maintain their average pay above the legal minimum.

"The Scottish Living Wage campaign would go further, no person delivering such a service should receive any less than the Living Wage for each and every hour that they are working."

Moxham added: "It is also shocking to hear that a charity would use such underhand methods as to appeal for volunteers to undertake festive season shifts on the expectation of a pay bonus and then reverse the previous practice of giving a bonus when the volunteers have been found.

"It is precisely this kind of practice which undermines workers' morale, with inevitable consequences for the overall quality of care."

Enable Scotland was also criticised by Susan Archibald, a former street sweeper who won a five-year discrimination case against Fife Council which ultimately forced employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people if they become unable to carry out their job due to their disability.

The 49-year-old who suffers from Complex Sympathetic Dystrophy, Fibromyalgia and Arthritis, said: "It's just despicable for this charity to pay staff £2.50 an hour for a sleepover. It's a highly demanding role, physically and emotionally.

"People need these care workers [in order] to live independently. It's not as if they go to their bed and you're not going to see them again. So if you work ten hours you should be paid for ten hours, minimum wage at least.

"I don't even think minimum wage is the right price for a carer. Realistically they should get at least £15 an hour. To pay £2.50 an hour is immoral."

Representatives of trade union Unison began negotiations with Enable on April 9 and a second round of talks is scheduled for April 23.

Regional Organiser Deborah Dyer said: "While we have been working with Enable Scotland to achieve a living wage for all Enable staff, this has yet to be achieved.

"Unison is currently engaged in negotiations with Enable Scotland on a number of issues including pay.

"We have further meetings scheduled and look forward to positive engagement with the new interim chief executive, Theresa Shearer, to resolve some of the pay concerns being raised by staff."

A spokeswoman for Enable Scotland said a "small number of staff" are paid the sleepover rate of £25.77, and this in under review.

The majority of workers earn £7.80 per hour after an increase from £7.20 per hour was implemented last year, according to the spokeswoman.

She said: "We value our staff, and would have loved to have also continued to offer our festive bonus payments in addition to this salary uplift last year.

"Unfortunately, the reality of the challenging economic climate for our sector resulted in us being unable to do both the salary increase and a bonus in 2014.

"We took the decision that we wanted all of our staff to be better paid every day, every month of the year, and not just at Christmas and New Year."

The spokeswoman added: "We are currently working in partnership with Unison to further increase hourly rates from £7.80 to £7.85, which is the current living wage."