'Exploited' social care staff to go on strike

Lancashire County Council's social care support workers are set to walk out in October

A fresh round of strike action by social care staff has been announced after a two-year row with a council over work conditions.

The workers employed by Lancashire County Council (LCC) are set to walk out between 4 and 19 October, having already downed tools on 69 occasions since July 2024.

The latest strike comes amid a row over what the Unison union said are "exploitative working practices" to do with staff being given responsibilities that should be restricted to higher paid colleagues.

A council spokesman said: "We deeply value our staff and are listening to their concerns."

Unison claims the authority's social care support officers are regularly having to undertake increasingly complex casework, including supporting survivors of domestic abuse, victims of sexual exploitation and people suffering from prolonged self-neglect.

Negotiations between the two sides via the conciliation service ACAS broke down more than three months ago, with each blaming the other for the collapse.

However, the union has now claimed that it has since attempted to restart discussions, but was rebuffed by the county council.

'Services on the cheap'

Unison's north west regional organiser, James Rupa, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the authority was approached late last month, once the union had a renewed mandate for strike action.

But he said the union was told via ACAS that the council did not want to "pursue" conciliation at that stage.

The LDRS understands the council first wanted to hold internal discussions about its next move, and has still neither formally rejected or agreed to the resumption of ACAS-mediated talks.

Mr Rupa said: "Lancashire County Council is exploiting its social care support officers.

"It's taking advantage of their expertise and good nature to deliver social work services on the cheap.

"This dispute could be resolved quite easily, but Lancashire County Council needs to start taking its employees' concerns seriously and deal with them."

In response, a spokesman for LCC said: "Contingency plans are in place to ensure business continuity and to ensure that Lancashire residents will not be adversely affected.

"We want to work with our staff and the trade union to reach a positive resolution to the ongoing dispute."