A care provider company delayed giving staff in Wales a pay rise for six months after the Welsh Government's announced a pay uplift. Achieve Together provides care services to people with complex needs, such as autism and learning difficulties.
In December 2021, the Welsh Government announced funding to ensure that care workers received the real living wage, which was due to be paid to care workers from April 2022 who had previously been on minimum wages. The Welsh Government provided funds to each local authority and health boards in Wales, including Cyngor Gwynedd, who then transferred the money to Achieve Together - which has various residential homes and living accommodation in the county, on April 1, 2022 to facilitate the pay rise.
However, members of staff at Achieve Together in Gwynedd have said their employer did not immediately pass the pay rise on to their workers.
Speaking to WalesOnline, the member of staff said that the workforce were initially "over the moon" that they would be receiving the pay rise at the beginning of April. They said: "It was fantastic to hear about the pay rise. I was really pleased for the team - everyone had been working hard. It felt like we as care staff were finally getting the recognition, because sometimes it feels like we are at the bottom of the pile most of the time."
For a few months after the real living wage uplift was implemented, the staff member said that the workforce remained hopeful that their pay would soon be increased. "Each month, the pay lift wasn’t coming," they explained. "But we never questioned the lateness because we thought it would be with us before Christmas and we would have a cash lump sum for the months that had been missed. We thought it would take time because we were busy, and so we just got on with our day. We had complete faith that it would come, but it never came."
The team did not benefit from this increased payment until October of last year, a staff member has said. When some members of staff asked if they would receive back payment for the months they had missed the pay uplift, the company replied that they had made a decision not to apply the back payment. In response to WalesOnline's query, Achieve Together has said that their team members will now be able to receive this back payment either through lump sum or through phased payments.
According to the staff member, the company's decision not to provide back payment in October has left the workforce with low morale. "It’s upsetting," they said. "It’s under £400 per person, in this day and age, that is critical for some people. They don’t care about what we’ve been through over the last three years and they don’t care enough about their staff.
"It's a multimillion pound company - it would have been a drop in the ocean for them. The morale is so low at the moment, we’ve been through enough, we were just coming out of the pandemic, we saw the light and now it’s just plummeted. If there was any more work around, I can’t tell you how many people would walk away from this job, but people haven’t left because work and opportunities are so limited at the moment."
In response to allegations that the pay lift had not been passed on to staff members, Plaid Cymru's Mabon ap Gwynfor MS for Dwyfor Meirionnydd is now calling for an explanation. In a statement, Mabon ap Gwynfor said: "My understanding is that the Welsh Government provided the funds for the local authorities, and in my constituency, at least, I know that Gwynedd Council in turn, passed those funds on to the care providers.
"However, one provider, Achieve Together, who provide care services to vulnerable people in Dwyfor Meirionnydd, failed to pay its workers that uplift for the period between April to October 2022. This is money that is rightly the wages of its workforce.
"The company say that they can't pay out because not all authorities have passed the funds on, but it's not theirs to keep. It begs the question what exactly have they done with the money, and when can workers expect to see the pay that is rightfully theirs. It is shocking that frontline care workers on the minimum wage did not receive the money owed to them until October 2022, with some still waiting for their pay rise and being told that they won't receive any backpay.
"Care workers across Dwyfor Meirionnydd provide an invaluable service to those they look after, and yet they're amongst those worst affected by the cost-of-living crisis. To withhold their hard-earned pay lift is reprehensible. I've asked the Welsh Government to look into this as a matter of urgency and received assurances that the matter will be investigated. I have also written again to Achieve Together seeking clarity as to where this money has gone and why workers have been denied money that is rightfully theirs."
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government also shared their concerns about the issue, stating that the funding should have directly gone to the care workers' wages. In a statement, the spokesperson said: "Paying care workers the Real Living Wage is a key commitment of this government. We are concerned over the claims that the funding we are providing, which should go straight into the pockets of care workers, has not yet been passed on to staff. We are working with our partner organisations to agree a solution to ensure the backdated payments reach those it was intended to support."
In response to WalesOnline's query, Cyngor Gwynedd said that measures were in place to ensure that all of their care service providers were paying the real living wage. A spokesperson for the county council said: "We have come to an agreement with all our care service providers to pay the Real Living Wage and we have measures in place to ensure that this happens. It would not be appropriate for us to comment on the details of the contracts we have with any specific care provider."
Achieve Together said that they had reviewed their inflationary fee uplifts in June 2022, at which time they said they had not received "enough funding" to pay real living wages to all their team members. However during another review in October 2022, they said they had received enough funding to pay the uplift and the change was immediately implemented.
Another review has taken place in February, they say, which confirmed they could implement April to September 2022 back pay. As a result, their team members will be able to receive this back payment either through lump sum or through phased payments.
A spokesperson for Achieve Together said: "All our team members receive the Real Living Wage across Wales and were paid this as soon as it was possible for us to do so under the national arrangements and in line with the guidance. With the support of the Welsh Government and funding authorities, our team members will also receive a backdated element for the period of April to September 2022. The uplift across Wales is a real recognition that our team members do an incredible job every day and make an invaluable impact on each person we support."
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