‘No jab no job’ policy giving Coventry’s care homes a reason to worry
From November 11 care home workers must be double jabbed with the vaccine to continue to work, unless they are exempt, as stated by the government.
This policy has been challenged by unions across the UK, the GMB union being one of them. A GMB union spokesperson said that they are “seeing serious staff shortages in homes". With this policy being introduced it adds on the struggles that care workers have had in recent years.
According to workforce intelligence, in the last year the average pay for a care worker has gone up by 51 pence from £8.50 to £9.01 hourly. This is still below the average hourly wage which is £9.50. The GMB union are calling for a mandatory raise to £15 an hour minimum.
The government did state that this would result to upwards of 70,000 care home jobs being lost, and Coventry is feeling this more than others. Coventry Telegraph had reported last month that hundreds of care homes in Coventry and Warwickshire had missed the deadline to get their mandatory vaccine to work.
Workers were supposed to get their first jab by September 19. Statistics from the NHS show that in Coventry, 93.1 percent of staff working in older adult care homes got their vaccine on the week ending September 19. This left 6.9 percent of people, who did not get their vaccine by the deadline. This amounts to 2037 people.
In response to the backlash, health secretary Sajid Javid had said on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme earlier this month that “if you cannot be bothered to go and get vaccinated then go out and get another job”. And when asked about the potential mass job vacancies, he responded by saying “There are other people who will come forward.”
From the response of the health secretary there appears to be no movement on the adjustment of these legal requirements for care workers. And for Coventry specifically, many care workers will have to look for work elsewhere.