Working to help the many, not the few

Much of the burden of care in this pandemic has fallen on workers scraping by at the lower end of the pay scale. Keeping a roof over their family’s head, putting food on the table and keeping the lights on are daily stresses while, for many, the concept of disposable income or savings is alien.

In his Spending Review, Chancellor Rishi Sunak this week announced that the bulk of public sector workers would see their pay frozen in the coming year.

For tens of thousands of workers who have moved heaven and earth to keep this country going during Covid, the announcement will have been a hammer blow.

But sadly, it will not have come as a surprise.

In Dundee, one carer has hit out after receiving an ‘insulting’ £25 payment from the local Health and Social Care Partnership.

The money is to cover additional laundry costs for staff working within Covid-hit care environments.

But it is easy to see how exhausted workers living on the breadline could misconstrue a well-meaning gesture as an insult.

The debate around low pay is not new, but Covid has given greater context and perspective to it.

If there is a lesson to learn from coronavirus, it is that we often undervalue those who contribute the most to society.

Those in positions of authority would do well to recognise that uncomfortable fact and demonstrate – through actions rather than words – their determination to improve the lot of the many, not the few.