Edinburgh care workers finally get 'immediate' pay rise promised in April

CARE workers in the Capital are finally to get the “immediate” pay rise they were promised by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman in April in recognition of their efforts during the Covid crisis.

But the move will mean an extra £3.4 million of cuts to Edinburgh’s health and social care budget.

A report for next week’s meeting of Edinburgh Integration Joint Board recommends approval of the 3.3 per cent pay rise for adult social care workers, in line with Ms Freeman’s announcement they would all receive the Scottish Living Wage of £9.30 an hour.

But the report says the Scottish Government had worked on the assumption boards would have budgeted for a 2.5 per cent pay increase and had therefore only funded the remaining 0.8 per cent.

It says as a result the board has received £1.15m which left a gap of £3.4m on top of the £15m savings it already needs to find.

The report says when Ms Freeman announced the pay rise she accepted some boards would be adversely impacted and promised to engaged with them, but despite several meetings between officials “it is now clear that no further funding will be provided”.

Lothian Labour MSP Sarah Boyack raised the issue in the Scottish Parliament, urging Ms Freeman to fully fund the pay increase.

Ms Boyack said: “Given the Edinburgh IJB has been underfunded from its inception, there is now an unacceptable choice between cutting services desperately needed for pandemic recovery and funding this vital pay rise.”

But Ms Freeman said there was additional funding for the pay rise.

And she added: “The Edinburgh IJB is actually alone in IJBs in not paying that wage rise. Other IJBs are doing it so clearly the funding is available.

“IJBs need to make political choices like governments make political choices, the money is there and I can assure you I intend to have even more discussions with the Edinburgh IJB about why the consistently refuse to make the right choice and pay those workers.”

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