‘All council staff should be given a £500 bonus’

ALL council employees in Wales should receive the £500 Covid “thank you” bonus being paid to NHS and care workers, according to Unison.

The trade union says many low-paid, mainly female public service workers, including school support staff, have been left hundreds of pounds worse off because of the costs of working from home.

Survey data has been released today showing that nine in 10 of these workers have not been reimbursed for extra costs incurred by their employer.

Public service workers told to work from home have met the costs of additional heating and electricity, telephone and broadband, home adaptation, and increased home insurance.

Unison’s survey of 738 public service workers found that 95% have not been offered any reimbursement for the extra costs they have incurred from working from home; 85% are not paid a home-working allowance and 6% earned too little to qualify for any tax relief for home working

Unison’s Ceredigion branch secretary Alison Boshier, who is a school support worker, said: “I’m a low-paid school worker and when the lockdown hit my husband had to isolate and couldn’t do overtime, which we rely on to make ends meet.

“It was particularly tough financially through those winter months.

“There are thousands of people in the same position as us in Wales.

“I had to work from home all day and when it was cold.

“That meant keeping the heating on all day.

“When we ran out of oil, we had to use electric bar heaters which are even more expensive.

“It’s insulting that my husband and I had to make choices about whether we could afford to be warm.

“There are so many hidden expenses which employers are not accounting for or compensating their low-paid workers, many of whom are part-time.”

A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “We value and recognise the incredible work of council workers over the many months of the pandemic – those who worked at home and those who continued in their physical places of work.

“However, the payment of allowances for home working is a matter for local government employers and their recognised trade unions to consider, as part of overall terms and conditions, taking account of the benefits and costs for both the organisation and the people who work for it.”