Cordia attacked over plan for weekend working scheme
UNION officials have criticised homecare provider Cordia after staff were urged to take on additional contracts to provide vital weekend cover.
Senior management at the fir m, which is an arm’s-length Glasgow City Council company, say the weekend contracts were a planned par t of their restructure.
They also say unions were consulted over the changes. However, Unison, which represents a large number of Cordia staff, disputes this claim.
A spokesman for Cordia said: “We’ve offered staff the opportunity of a secondary contract for the next 12 weeks as part of the third phase of our workforce changes. It was always planned that we would do this and we consulted the trade unions about it.”
However, Sam Macartney, from Unison’s Glasgow branch, said: “They never consulted us regarding these contracts, they have come on the back of this mess Cordia have made of these services. This has been done on the realisation that their plan of the new shifts is not working.”
Cordia was previously criticised for changing shift patterns, with some workers being asked to do seven days on and seven days off.
Staff feared it would leave clients with carers they did not know and workers having to find their way around different parts of the city.
A Cordia spokesman said the service had “returned to normal” following the shift changes introduced two weeks ago.
He said that between Monday and Friday last week, 29 appointments were missed, which is below the six-per-day average for the service. But Mr MacArtney said: “I absolutely disagree with their comments and it is about time they were honest with the public about what is going on.
“The fact we are still being contacted by community groups, carers, and that there are numerous grievances from staff, people off sick... the service has not returned to normal.
“This has been done on the back of a fag packet.”