20 June (Part 7) - Ladies of the night shift
Wending my way home from
the council meeting last night thinking the day
couldn’t have got much better I was accosted by two young blonde girls. Well as
you might guess it didn’t go quite like that, but I had recognised a couple of
Bexley’s domiciliary care workers on their way to their next client. I asked
them if they were aware of the tax authorities ruling that their pay and
conditions fell outside the law. They told me they were and I gave them some
ideas on how they might tackle it.
They were not at all happy with another obstacle put in their way by their
bosses. It would make no sense to most people but to stop their rota showing 16
hour shifts they were being double booked for the evening ones thereby reducing
the shift to around 12 hours. They then met up with a lot of clients complaining
they were late - inevitably. Then if the care worker complains about this
malpractice the agency cuts their work to four clients a day and starves them into submission.
One day the press will pick up on Bexley council turning a blind eye to
these Dickensian practices.