STRIKING workers at three private-sector care homes are believed to be the first such in the country to take action to fight pay cuts.

GMB members at Silverline care homes in Cardonald, Ballieston and Stobhill in Glasgow voted to reject a pay offer which amounted to between 8 and 13 pence an hour. 

Care workers currently earning £10.90 per hour have had a 13p increase imposed just days go – a rise of just over 1 per cent while RPI inflation remains at 10.7 per cent.

GMB members on one picket line described the real terms pay cut as “an insult.”

Workers told the Star that they had faced “emotionally blackmailing” phone calls, deduction of their GMB subs scrapped, as well as massive shortfalls in recent pay packets – all of which, they argue, are intended to encourage strike-breaking.

Cardonald GMB rep Dawn Pinkston said: “We’ve got carers here using foodbanks.

“People can’t afford to feed or clothe their kids, to pay their rent or mortgages.

“The bills have all gone up, but our wages don’t. The private care sector is a shambles.”

GMB organiser Kirsty Nimmo told the Star: “The people running this company are making a lot of money, and they hold hundreds of directorships between them.

“The truth is that they are reliant on public funding, yet they have broken the law in this strike by using agency staff.

“They seem to think it doesn’t apply to them.

“They have staff looking after some of the most vulnerable folk in our communities having to go to food banks to feed their kids.

“If Silverline, and the Minster Group who run them, don’t move and move soon, we’re prepared to serve notice for a full week’s action.

“Enough is enough.”

Silverline was contacted for comment.