CARE workers from across Scotland converged on Holyrood yesterday to demand the government return their “missing millions” after it slashed funding to promote fair work in social care.

The workers, represented by Unison, GMB and Unite, alongside the STUC are demanding the SNP Scottish government reverse the decision made in February’s budget to cut more than £38 million to the sector notorious for precarity and low pay.

Unions in the sector have now rallied around the STUC Missing Millions campaign to return the cash — ring-fenced to provide maternity, paternity and sick pay — building on an already growing campaign to win national collective bargaining and a £15-an-hour minimum wage in the sector.