More than 100 care workers are striking for 24 hours from 8am this morning after their employer refused to withdraw plans to cut their pay.

Staff at Sirona Care and Health care homes across Bath and North East Somerset could lose up to £1,200 from their salaries if the plans for shift changes go ahead.

Sirona bosses want workers to accept a half an hour pay cut of each shift, or accrue a 30-minute “debt” per shift which they would have to work for free at a later date.

The public service union, Unison, says workers are willing to go the extra mile “but this is a step too far”.

Around 120 Unison members will walk out today and for two hours every other day for the rest of June, but B&NES Council has a legal duty to ensure people will continue to have their care needs met.

Unison South West organiser John Drake said: “B&NES Council need to ask themselves what they are doing dishing out a £1,200 pay cut for these already low-paid workers.

“Just this week, Cornwall Council signed up to the ethical care charter, paying all care workers a real living wage. If cash-strapped Cornwall can do it, then B&NES Council, with its huge tourism income, can find £170,000 to protect these vital workers.

“More than 100 workers will walk out today with a heavy heart, but they simply cannot accept this pay cut. The figures estimating their reduced income don’t even factor in the cost of childcare, travel, and lost time with family that Sirona’s shift debt system will cause.

“The more they work, the more time they owe back to their employer.

“This is a frankly Victorian system. B&NES Council need to intervene to stop this going any further.

“These staff look after older people with serious conditions including dementia.

“The system relies on their willingness to go the extra mile, but this is a step too far.

“We don’t want our relatives looked after on the cheap, yet that is what Sirona and B&NES Council are doing. If the plans go through, quality of care will suffer as experienced staff are forced to leave.”

Chief Executive, Janet Rowse, said last month that Sirona was doing all it can to avert the strike and added: “The care provided by our staff is phenomenal and it is with great reluctance that we do anything which impacts directly on them.

“We do, however, need to live within our means, whilst finding a way of continuing to provide high quality care within our reduced level of resources.”

A B&NES Council spokeswoman said last month: “Like all local authorities, the Council has a duty under the Care Act to make sure people continue to have their care needs met when the regular service that supports them is interrupted.

“Sirona also has a responsibility to support this and has given assurance that care services will continue to be provided.”

This afternoon, Lib Dem Group Leader, Councillor Dine Romero, has called on the Council to step in to help resolve the pay dispute between Sirona management and staff.

She said: “Ultimately, care workers have been forced into this action by the Conservative Council and government who are starving local services of funding.

“The Council must urgently step in to resolve the situation. If they fail to act, vulnerable elderly and disabled residents, care workers and their families will be the ones to suffer.”

“The funding shortfall is £170,000, which should not be an insurmountable sum in the context of overall Council spending.

“Residents would be justified in asking why they are paying an extra 3% on their Council Tax for the ‘Adult Social Care Precept’ this year, if it is not to support front line staff.”

Lib Dem Health and Care spokesperson, Councillor Tim Ball (Twerton) added: “In the bigger picture, the Government must take urgent action to address the health and care funding crisis. We have seen report after report, but nothing concrete has been done.

“I will be questioning the Cabinet member about what efforts he has made to urge the government to act.”Leader of B&NES Labour Group and Spokesperson for Health and Social Care, Cllr Robin Moss said: “Sirona need to be valuing and investing in its staff. There is a national and local problem with recruiting and retaining residential care workers and to impose a pay cut on some of the poorest paid people in Bath and North East Somerset doing some of the most important work with our most vulnerable residents makes no sense whatsoever. "While this is clearly mainly an issue for Sirona, this is a service paid for by B&NES Council, provided in B&NES buildings for B&NES residents. "The Tory administration cannot just turn around and pretend it’s nothing to do with them. People in Bath and North East Somerset expect better from their Council so the Labour Group is urging Sirona and the Tory Cabinet to get together as a matter of urgency to resolve this dispute”.