A UNION has warned the council it could provoke court action if it continues to draft in staff to care for vulnerable adults while workers are on strike.
Staff who work unsocial hours will strike again next weekend after Tory-controlled Cheshire West and Chester Council stopped premium payments for overtime, weekend and bank holiday working.
And Unison is contacting employment agencies drafted in by the council to highlight that providing cover for strikers is potentially illegal and could lead to court action.
The union is also unhappy that some agency care staff have not undergone criminal record checks.
Unison regional officer Maria Moss said: “Reports that staff who had no criminal records checks were used and paying non-striking staff double-pay has really rubbed salt in the wound for staff who are already very angry.”
This weekend’s strike will hit services including residential care, libraries, markets, street cleaning, sheltered housing wardens and emergency duty social work cover.
Council spokeswoman Rachel Ashley denied drafting in agency care staff to look after vulnerable adults was acting outside the law.
Instead, she said the strikers themselves may be committing an offence by potentially endangering human life.
She added: “We firmly believe that fulfilling our duty of care to this group of highly vulnerable individuals overrides any other point of law in this case.”
Mrs Ashley confirmed some agency care staff were not CRB-checked but were never left without supervision which was ‘as per normal protocol’.
Tory staffing committee chairman Cllr Alan McKie said: “The union’s revised proposals are to be considered at the next staffing committee on May 28.
“We find it baffling the unions are not prepared to wait two weeks for this matter to receive full and proper consideration.”
