SERVICES to adults with learning difficulties in Bury are under threat in a looming dispute over pay cuts to staff who work sleep-in shifts.

The so-called “top-up” payments are made to staff who work the shifts to ensure their average hourly pay reaches the national minimum wage rate, says their union, Unison.

The payments are worth £30 to £40 per shift and make up a significant portion of support workers’ incomes, according to Unison.

Two care providers which hold contracts across the North West. Alternative Futures Group, which operates in Bury, Oldham, Tameside, and Bolton intends to stop paying the top-ups in January.

Lifeways, which runs facilities in Bolton and Lancashire, has announced it will stop paying them with immediate effect.

Unison’s North West regional organiser Tim Ellis said: “This is a mean-spirited attack on the incomes of low-wage workers who are performing valuable work.

“Alternative Futures and Lifeways are acting hastily and opportunistically. They are still getting the same level of funding from councils so their raid on workers’ incomes is wholly unnecessary. “Staff feel very strongly that this attack on them is unfair. Alternative Futures and Lifeways should listen to their staff and restore the sleep-in top-up payments immediately. “Councils who commission services from these two providers should be insisting that they do not make these brutal cuts to the incomes of public service workers who are already on poverty pay.”

The Bury Times has contacted AFG and Lifeways for comment.