CARE workers from across Scotland took their fight for £15 pay to the doorstep of the First Minister’s plush official residence today.

It came as Humza Yousaf presented his SNP-Green Scottish government’s three-year plan to Holyrood, telling MSPs: “I will commit to a timetable that sets out how this government will get to £12 an hour for adult social care workers.

“We are not able to afford to do this absolutely immediately.”

The offer of £12-an-hour at an unidentified point in the future fell well short of the demands of Unite after a recent survey found that 30 per cent of workers’ pay didn’t last the month, while 70 per cent had cut back on essentials to make ends meet.

In response workers are calling for a £15-an-hour minimum wage in social care, national-level sectoral bargaining, guaranteed two 30-minute breaks on shift, and their professional fees to regulator SSSC to be paid by employers.

On behalf of all social care workers in Scotland, members of Unite gathered outside Bute House in Edinburgh’s historic New Town, not only to deliver that claim to the First Minister’s doorstep.

Remaining on the doorstep to address the rally, deputy regional secretary Mary Alexander joined a number of speakers from the sector, including social care rep Sandra Trotter.

Speaking to the Star, Ms Trotter spoke of the “palpable anger at being disrespected and undervalued as a workforce,” adding: “The Scottish government is making continuous empty promises.

“Their National Care Service Bill does nothing to stop private investment firms from profiteering in the sector while workers are increasingly forced to work longer hours just to make ends meet.

“We went from hero in Covid times to being an afterthought again.”