Unfair Dismissal of Care Workers Lands Employer in Court
Care workers at care homes work hard for meagre pay. The business of servicing people is definitely lucrative to firms but quite a labour for the workers involved. It is back breaking work from morning to night and the pay is never really justified.
Despite such a situation 115 workers found themselves dismissed when they refused to sign new contracts. These workers were employed with Excelcare, a social care firm with over 20 years of business experience.
Excelcare took over ten care homes in a bid to expand its services in
With existing pay structure not sufficient to handle the needs of the day, the workers refused to sign new contracts with effect to the same. This prompted Excelcare to dismiss workers who were against the new contracts. Workers specialised in taking care of others were miserable with no hope. It was definitely unfair and a tribunal heard the case.
After two weeks of hearing at Bury St Edmunds, during which Excelcare claimed that it had no alternative but to order pay cuts or close its care homes. In fact, the firm put the blame on the council. However, the reason was not sufficient to dismiss existing care workers who had refused to sign the new contracts.
The tribunal ordered Excelcare to pay compensation to its dismissed employees ranging from £1,000 to £300,000. Unison, the trade union was elated with the outcome. Spokeswoman for Unison, Anne Vinden commented that the compensation was well deserved as the workers in the care industry are industrious but paid less. This would throw light on the plight of countless workers who toil by the day to take care of people unable to take care of themselves.
Annalie King, an employment solicitor at KCJ commented that it was important that the employers and workers become familiar with legal responsibilities and liabilities to protect themselves from unfair dismissal.
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