Care charity Alternative Futures Group (AFG) could be hit by industrial action among its workforce in the coming weeks over a decision to cut pay for overnight staff below the minimum wage.
More than 600 Unison members among AFG's 2,500 workers are being balloted over a potential walk-out following the employer's decision to reduce pay for sleep-in shifts.
The move came after a Court of Appeal hearing in July, on the joined cases of Mencap v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad, that ruled workers on these shifts were not always entitled to the full minimum wage. This overruled previous tribunal decisions that said sleep-in shift workers should be entitled to the full minimum wage.
AFG wrote to its workers in November saying it would stop paying top-up fees as it was “highly likely that our commissioners will stop paying a rate which would allow us to continue to make top-up payments”.
Unison North West says the pay cut will cost staff as much as £40 a week, or £2,000 a year.
The ballot will run until 1 February.
Tom Ellis, Unison North West regional organiser, said: "Councils are paying AFG enough for them to pay their staff decently for sleep-ins. AFG should pass that public money on to where it’s supposed to go – to the hardworking frontline support workers who cannot afford cuts to their incomes.
“AFG’s current plans are jeopardising service provision, impoverishing staff, and they ignore local councils’ wishes. AFG faces the real prospect of strike action if they continue on their reckless course.”
Unison has also lodged an application to appeal the latest ruling in the Supreme Court.
Gavin Edwards, the union's national officer, said: “Time spent in a place of work with a responsibility to provide care is working time and should be paid at least the national minimum wage.
“Local authorities and organisations providing care who are seeking to cut the wages of already low paid care staff are behaving irresponsibly and storing up serious issues for the future.
“Unison does not consider this issue to be settled legally. We'll continue to stand up for the right of care workers to receive at least the legal wage for every hour of their crucially important work.”
