Something needs to change- our cars don't run on air! (Western Trust Demonstration)

UNISON will be holding a demonstration about the rising cost of fuel and travel expenses at Altnagelvin Today (Tuesday 22nd March) at 2:30pm. UNISON members will be delivering a letter to Western Trust CEO, Neil Guckian urging him to resolve the hardship being faced by workers simply carrying out the functions of their job.

Health and social care workers such as homecare workers, district nurses and occupational therapists are facing a mileage rate which is not meeting the cost of running their car to travel from client to client. If health and social care workers can not afford to complete these shifts it will impact on the entire health service, which is already in crisis.

Mary Lyttle, Foyle Health joint branch secretary and homecare worker stated, “Me and my colleagues work hard to provide care to the most vulnerable in our society. We should not be in a position of having to choose between heating our homes and filling our cars with fuel so that we can do our job. The Department of Health must urgently make funds available to address the shortfall in the current mileage rates and the cost of fuel”.