First nursing agency in Northern Ireland pledges to pay living wage

Care assistants working for a healthcare agency in Northern Ireland will be the first to receive the National Living Wage.

Lucas Love Healthcare is the first nursing agency to sign up to the pledge which guarantees care assistants the £7.20 an hour rate, plus paid holidays, lifting the worker’s salary to £1.01per hour over the minimum wage.

The company’s decision to increase the current hourly rate for all care assistants follows research that one in five UK workers earn less than the living wage. This is measured on what workers need to afford a basic standard of living.

Sinead Polland, nursing and care agency director at Lucas Love said: “Our care assistants work extremely hard. Working as a care assistant is a very physical and emotional job, with great benefits.

“We felt that our staff needed recognition for the wonderful work they carry out for some of Northern Ireland’s most vulnerable people.

“The extra £1.01 per hour will result in our agency care assistants increasingly their monthly wage substantially and we hope this will assist in increasing their standard of living. The pay increase will come into effect on Tuesday 1 January 2013, giving extra income for the New Year.

“At Lucas Love Healthcare we pride ourselves on the support, training and development we offer all our healthcare professionals. Our staff, are in at ground level and can be working 40-hour weeks for us, it’s only fair they receive a reasonable wage to reflect this.”