Overnight care workers have reported being attacked at work and forced to sleep in offices, in a new survey conducted by Unison.
The survey found 13% of care workers said the sleeping facilities were unsuitable where they worked, with 2% of staff having nowhere to sleep at all.
Staff also reported having no bathroom to wash or shower in despite having to work another shift the next day.
More than seven in ten care workers surveyed said they were so busy they only got a couple of hours sleep a night, with the vast majority not allowed to leave their place of work while on a shift.
Sleeping in, losing out also found a third (31%) of those responding to the survey had been physically or verbally attacked at work.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘This report demonstrates how much sleep-in staff are relied upon. They’re effectively keeping the care system on its feet. Yet workers are hugely undervalued by employers and paid poverty wages.
‘It’s totally unacceptable to leave staff to sleep in offices, and not protect them from abuse.’
