Home carers in Glasgow are to be balloted for industrial action as their union said it had no confidence in plans for workplace testing of Covid-19.
GMB Scotland said more than 1,700 of its members will take part in a three-week ballot over concerns at Glasgow City Council’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HCSP).
It will run from from Tuesday January 19 to Monday February 8.
READ MORE: Scotland's coronavirus testing rate 'worst in UK' as 'two thirds' of cases undetected
The union said services in the HSCP could be affected by action as early as Monday February 22.
It criticised the HSCP and the Scottish Government over a lack of clarity on workplace testing and claimed staff have had problems with getting the coronavirus vaccine.
GMB Scotland organiser David Hume said: “There is no confidence whatsoever among our members in their employer or the Government to sufficiently protect their health and safety at work.
“And why should there be? They were failed on PPE at the outset of this pandemic, they have been left waiting 10 months for workplace testing, and some are already encountering problems getting their first vaccine.”
READ MORE: Community testing to take place in areas with high Covid prevalence
He added: “The HSCP should have been fighting tooth and nail for every resource to protect the safety of their employees and their service users.
“Instead they have been sitting on zoom calls for nearly a year, waiting on guidance from the Scottish Government, only for ministers to leave councils carrying the can for testing delivery.
“We are a week away from the testing roll-out and we still don’t know what kind of test home carers will receive, how it will be distributed or how it will be administered.
“The interests of these key workers have been consistently forgotten and they are being treated negligently by their employer, and this Government.”
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