Essential workers in health and education are leaving critical
roles for better-paid roles in supermarkets, according to
UNISON chief Christina McAnea.
Speaking to Committee Corridor, the podcast from select
committees at the House of Commons, Christina McAnea described to
host , how healthcare workers,
teaching assistants and paramedics are among the occupations
facing stressful, draining jobs with no certainty of pay
increases to match the rising cost of living. A lack of career
structure and progression compounds the incentive to stay, with
troubling consequences: “If these services are rundown,
that’s not good for the British public”, she warned.
Unison is predominantly a public sector union, drawing its 1.3
million members from local government, education and health. Ms
McAnea reported how more people in higher income brackets such
as £30-40k are seeking assistance as the cost-of-living
crisis bites deeper, adding that these were people UNISON would
never have heard from before.
“Almost 30% of NHS employers now provide foodbanks for their
staff, and another 20% are planning to set them up,” she
said, also detailing how employers are reporting rising
levels of staff absence just before payday as
employees cannot afford fuel or travel costs to get to
work.
The latest episode of Committee Corridor considers jobs and the
workforce. It airs as vacancies in health and social care soar
and more workers vote for strike action. Schools fear cuts to
school budgets will mean cutting back on support staff - which
would diminish the quality of children's education, said the
General Secretary.
Ms McAnea called for such essential professions, including carers
and special needs assistants to be better valued and
recognised for their contribution to wider society. This could
include more structured career paths to improve retention and
save employers the costs of recruiting and training in areas of
high staff turnover.
Select Committee members (Education Committee, Labour) and (Transport Committee,
Conservative), who joined Darren Jones on the podcast, agreed
that change is needed urgently to improve the conditions of
workers in essential sectors.
Mr Smith highlighted the struggle road hauliers face in the
recruitment and retention of long-distance lorry drivers, with
many leaving for better pay and hours driving supermarket HGVs.
Following work on a Transport Committee report
into road freight, he described the conditions the Committee
witnessed at roadside washing facilities:
“We saw tiles falling off the walls. We saw mould. We saw
taps that didn’t work. Changing areas that you really didn’t want
to get changed in… we’ve got to up our game as a country on those
roadside facilities.”
Meanwhile, Mr Mearns said that while overall budgets for
education had increased, per child financing had not kept up with
inflation but that for teachers “pay is obviously the biggest
concern.” The Education Committee is considering how post-16
qualifications and whether young people are effectively
prepared for the world of work.
Host , chairs the Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee which is
investigating UK labour markets.
“There are not enough people with the right skills in the
right places to do all the right jobs,” he said. “We
think this is something that's really challenging our abilities
to grow the economy and to improve our productivity. So, it'll be
a win-win for workers and for the economy, as well as for our
public services if we can get this right.”
Details of Committee Corridor are available from the UK
Parliament website where the transcript of each episode is also
published. Series one and two are available from all the usual
podcast providers.
Notes to editors:
