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Monday, March 26, 2007 | 06:55
LEGAL proceedings have been launched by a workers union representing care home staff “sacked” by a new company that took over their contracts from the county council.
Unison has taken on the case of more than 30 care home employees, launching legal claims against Excelcare.
It comes after the running of ten elderly people's homes, including properties in Maldon, Dovercourt and Colchester, was transferred from Essex County Council to the company in March 2005.
However, within less than a year, Excelcare - which is claimed to have used individual companies to run the homes - asked staff to accept pay cuts of up to 40% and the removal of other terms and conditions, due to financial constraints.
Now the workers, mainly low-paid women with many years experience in the field, are being represented by Unison as it mounts legal claims against Excelcare and some of its related companies.
The 34 cases are expected to end up in an employment tribunal.
A spokesman for the company, based in London, refused to comment on the development, saying it was a “matter for the courts.”
But Unison's regional officer, Michelle Bradley, claimed the new terms for the workers were “unlawful”.
She said: “We believe that the changes to people's terms are unlawful and hopefully the tribunal will consider all the arguments put forward and agree with us.
“We would question why the homes were set up as businesses in the first place but also that there is an issue here for Essex County Council - did it know that the homes would be set up as little businesses? “Did it know that the staff would be transferred to them, because the council didn't tell the staff and they didn't tell the unions.”
An Essex County Council spokeswoman told the EADT the matter was no longer their responsibility.
She said: “It wouldn't be our place to comment (about the impending action). We did the full and correct, proper checks before we originally sold the homes off.”
Five of the ten homes sold were targeted with the cuts and most staff have held out from accepting the offers.
Unison claims they have effectively been “sacked” by the company and that many remain at work “under protest”.
One care worker affected by the changes said things “couldn't get any worse” for her.
Denise Yap, who had worked in an Essex care home for 20 years before leaving as a result of the dispute, said she felt Excelcare had acted “appallingly”.
She said she felt that her training, experience and expertise were not being fully recognised by the new employers, and that nothing would stop her from fighting her case.
She added: “It's demoralised us. I was a career carer - an NVQ assessor. There's no future now in care if all you're going to get is minimum wage. They want to have my experience but weren't going pay for it - I felt worthless.
“What they have done cannot be right for the staff or the residents.”
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