Glasgow City Council's frontline and key workers are to hold a second demonstration later this afternoon in their fight for a COVID-19 bonus payment. 

The city's cleansing staff held a socially-distanced protest last month as they called on the Scottish Government and COSLA to recognise the sacrifices of low-paid frontline workers by bringing forward a coronavirus bonus payment.

Home care workers will today be joining the cleansing department as they repeat those calls amid fears of a second coronavirus wave. 

READ MORE: 'Pay up for key workers': Glasgow council cleansing and refuse staff call for Covid-19 payment

GMB Scotland members are campaigning for a £2 an hour additional payment for every hour worked during the coronavirus lockdown - a figure that would deliver a retrospective payment of £85 per week on the basic rate of pay for frontline staff

Campaigners handed over a petition a fortnight ago to the First Minister that had gathered 8000 signatures from key workers in local government and NHS Scotland.

The latest protest takes place at 2pm on Buchanan Street today as fears grow among exhausted frontline staff over a possible second spike of Covid-19 infections.

GMB Glasgow Branch Secretary and home carer Shona Thomson said: “Frontline workers like those in our home care have endured phenomenal levels of stress and anxiety over the last few months but just like Covid-19 that pressure hasn’t gone away.

“Let’s be clear that our members are risking their own health and safety, and their families’ too, while ensuring some of the most vulnerable people in our society are tended and safe.

“Services like home care do not have the option of working from home and a decade of cuts means that we have ploughed through this crisis with limited resources.

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“We are some of the lowest-paid workers in the country, we have carried that weight on our backs for nearly six months now, and that contribution simply cannot be ignored.

“While the public support we’ve received has been really appreciated, we are now looking for recognition and value from the employers and politicians that we’re quick to clap us.”

GMB Glasgow Convenor and refuse collector Chris Mitchell added: “Frontline workers were called upon to their civic duty and have done so willingly, serving the needs of our communities while the country went into lockdown.

“But there is no sense whatsoever in a return to normality so long as this deadly virus remains a threat, and it’s a fact that we remain very vulnerable to infection as we work.

“And after a decade of cuts combined with the events of the last six months, we are like a low-paid army that’s had our resources depleted and our terms and conditions devalued.

“We can’t go back to “business as usual”, change has to happen beginning with reward and recognition and ending with proper value and respect – a payment is an important first step.

“So after the applause, our message to the Scottish Government and COSLA is loud and clear, do the right thing and pay up for key workers.”