Over the past year, the demand for Care Workers Union (CWU) services has surged by over tenfold. Despite this significant increase, our resources have remained unchanged, making it increasingly difficult to sustain our operations. To continue providing essential support, we must implement a slight increase in membership fees.
This modest adjustment will allow us to recruit additional Trade Union Representatives and upgrade our systems and processes to better serve our growing membership. We want to emphasise that even with this increase, our membership fee remains less than 10% of what most unions charge.
To further support our members, we have linked the membership fee to annual salaries. This ensures that the fee remains fair and manageable, especially considering the rising living costs that disproportionately impact underpaid and overworked care workers. To establish your membership fee, we will need a copy of your latest payslip. If, for any reason, you are unable to provide this, an average weekly membership fee of £5 will apply.
The new rates are detailed below:
|
Annual Salary |
Membership Fees (£/week) |
|
Up to £2,000 |
1 |
|
£2,001 – £5,000 |
2 |
|
£5,001 – £8,000 |
3 |
|
£8,001 – £11,000 |
3 |
|
£11,001 – £14,000 |
4 |
|
£14,001 – £17,000 |
5 |
|
£17,001 – £20,000 |
6 |
|
£20,001 – £25,000 |
7 |
|
£25,001 – £30,000 |
9 |
|
£30,001 – £35,000 |
10 |
|
Over £35,000 |
11 |
|
Average |
5 |
IMPORTANT: To keep membership fees at this level, we ask that you always email all queries to admin@careworkersunion.org rather than telephone, as telephone calls cost CWU £1.20 per call. This is not sustainable, and we ask that you help us maintain the low membership fees by emailing instead of telephoning.
We are proud of our singular focus on care workers’ rights and the limits of their obligations. No other trade union exists that focuses solely on care workers. Existing trade unions represent workers across the labour market, leading to a less targeted approach. The CWU channels its entire firepower into advancing care workers’ rights and improving working conditions.
This is offered for a competitive membership fee of just 1% of an average worker’s weekly salary. With this weekly subscription, a care worker has immediate access to a network of other care workers, social care providers, and other professionals in the sector. Additionally, members benefit from CWU representation at both local and national levels. For every new dispute, members are entitled to free initial advice and information regarding any employment issues.
The CWU is affiliated with the Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution Experts (CADRE), an institution comprising experts in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), committed to helping resolve disputes before they reach court. CWU also has longstanding links with the care sector and care providers through our affiliation with the Cambridgeshire Care Providers Alliance (CCPA).
The CWU’s expertise in ADR and its affiliation with CADRE ensure that we take a structured and professional approach to misunderstandings and disputes:
- Prevention: We aim to stop disputes from arising by ensuring proper systems are in place to enable employee-employer dialogue and prevent misunderstandings.
- Resolution: If disputes do arise, we work to stop them from escalating by getting an independent person to adjudicate and resolve issues as a third party.
Where initial free legal advice does not resolve the dispute and the matter escalates to an investigation or hearing, CWU will deploy additional resources for a modest fee. For further guidance on this, please email admin@careworkersunion.org.
