{"id":21168,"date":"2020-04-30T12:30:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T11:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=21168"},"modified":"2020-04-30T12:30:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T11:30:33","slug":"covid-19-life-sum-should-go-to-bus-workers-too-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=21168","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 life sum should go to bus workers too call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Following health and social care secretary Matt Hancock\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement earlier this week that the government would pay a \u00c2\u014160,000 life assurance sum to the families of \u00c2\u00a0NHS and social care staff who have died from Covid-19, today (April 30) Unite called on transport secretary Grant Shapps to do the same for bus workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 families.<\/p>\n<p>Unite are urging Shapps to do so following the deaths of at least 34 transport workers because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Representing 80,000 bus workers Unite also questioned whether the \u00c2\u014160,000 payment would be adequate to replace lost earnings over a working lifetime \u00e2\u20ac\u201c given that a deceased key worker may have had another 25 years employment ahead of them.<\/p>\n<p>Unite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton wants the transport secretary to urgently investigate how the \u00c2\u014160,000 life assurance payment, can now be extended to these key bus workers. He added that in light of the 34 deaths Unite wanted to work constructively with government and bus operators.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe accept that NHS staff and social care staff are in the highest category of risk, compounded by the scandalous lack of PPE,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Morton, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbut other key workers, such as bus workers, should be not be forgotten if the worst, unfortunately, happens.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Indiscriminate killer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat we have discovered about coronavirus is that it is an indiscriminate \u00e2\u20ac\u0098killer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that has been responsible for the deaths of far too many bus workers who are classed as key workers, keeping the country running during this national emergency,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n<p>But Morton is also concerned about the sum itself. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is also a further question whether a lump sum of \u00c2\u014160,000 is enough to replace the lost lifetime earnings of a worker who has succumbed to Covid-19 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we believe it is not enough and that the government should build financially on the welcome first step already announced.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>By UNITElive team @unitetheunion.org <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton wants the transport secretary to urgently investigate how the \u00c2\u014160,000 life assurance payment, can now be extended to these key bus workers. He added that in light of the 34 deaths Unite wanted to work constructively with government and bus operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[176,1295,29],"wps_subtitle":"Unite: \u00c2\u014160,000 life assurance payment should be extended to UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bus workers","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21170,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21168\/revisions\/21170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}