We are Merseyside’s care and support workers. We provide exceptional care within care homes, homecare and supported living services across Merseyside’s six local authorities – Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
We care for people across Merseyside. We worked tirelessly during the pandemic to keep Merseyside safe and healthy, often at great personal cost. But does Merseyside care about us?
We have cared for elderly and disabled people suffering with COVID-19. We have been with Merseyside’s elderly residents when no-one else could visit them. We have put ourselves and our families at risk by working on the frontline during the pandemic, often without adequate resources or proper sick pay.
We feel undervalued, underappreciated and underpaid. Thousands of care and support workers across our city are paid less than the Foundation Living Wage (£10.90).
We do some of the hardest and most important work in Merseyside – yet many of us are struggling to make ends meets. Care and support workers across all six boroughs of Merseyside have been forced to visit food banks, use pay day loans, take on second jobs, or work excessive hours.
We are now faced with an escalating cost-of-living crisis as the cost of gas, electricity, petrol and food sky rockets.
This can’t be allowed to continue. Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of Liverpool City Region, has called on all employers to pay the Foundation Living Wage in accordance with the Liverpool City Region’s Fair Employment Charter.
It’s time to turn these ambitions into reality. We are key workers. We are Merseyside’s care and support workers. And we demand a pay rise.
Our Demands
We call on Merseyside’s six local authorities (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral) to require the Foundation Living Wage as a minimum starting salary for all directly employed and commissioned care and support workers
We call on Steve Rotheram to work with us to deliver the Foundation Living Wage as a minimum starting salary for all of Merseyside’s care and support workers
And we call on members of the public to hold local councillors to account and stand with us in our campaign for a pay rise.