On Thursday, the price of a liter of unleaded gasoline reached 182.31 p, which means that the cost of filling an average family car reached 100 pounds for the first time. Some employees who have to drive for work spend up to £ 350 a week on fuel and others “pay to go to work”. The GMB warned that the increase had “crushed” its members and said staff shortages in the transport and healthcare industries “would only worsen as prices continued to rise”. An NHS community worker told the Observer that the increase in fuel prices had exceeded their compensation for the cost of petrol, so staff were now paying not only to go to work but also to drive to patients’ homes. to do his job. Tiffany, another community health worker, said fuel now accounts for most of her monthly expenses – almost £ 250 – only 1 171 of which was reimbursed by the NHS. She said the rising cost, combined with the fact that the NHS refund came at the end of the month, meant she had to borrow money from her partner. “My whole team is exhausted,” he said. “Morality has been the worst for about 10 years. To be honest with you, I feel worse now than I did during Covid. “I could work on a subway in Aldi and get paid more.” The NHS waiting list in England reached a record 6.4 million people last month. The total staff shortage in the service is estimated at 110,000. Lack of fuel led to huge queues at gas stations last fall. Photo: David Levene / The Guardian The Observer also spoke with taxi drivers and individuals who had been forced to do second jobs or work six days to cover fuel costs. “There are a lot of people who need help and there is not,” said Paul Sweeney, a London-based taxi driver who loses 300 300 a month on the highest fuel costs despite driving a hybrid electric vehicle. “Many people did not return to trading after Covid because of what is happening. “Where will we be in five years if this continues?” According to the latest figures, the deficit for both Uber and black cab drivers in London is around 10,000 after a mass exodus during Covid that drivers said continued to worsen. Couriers and other truck drivers have also been severely affected. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live on Friday, one said: “I’ve gotten to the point where I decided to look for another job… I’ve been watching people who have been doing this for 16 years say, ‘This is my last day’. When I filled it the other day it was 108 £ and I could have cried because I know how much work I have to do now before I make money “. The UK inflation rate reached a 40-year high of 9% in April. The Bank of England expects it to reach 10% before the end of the year. In October, the energy price ceiling is projected to rise by 42%, from 97 1,971 to από more than 80 2,801, another increase from the £ 700 rise recorded in April. “GMB members, like everyone else, are being crushed by sparking energy bills, big jumps in food and fuel prices by almost λί 2 a liter,” said GMB Secretary-General Gary Smith. “Record petrol prices now mean that NHS community staff, carers, taxi drivers and others on the way to work are literally paying to get to work. This may not be right. “It is not surprising that we see a huge shortage of staff in many of these industries – and it will worsen as prices continue to rise.” Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, warned on Friday that some members of the union were likely to go on strike in the coming months as a result of the higher costs. “We do not want to put low-wage workers on strike,” he said. “But if there is no alternative, what else can people do?”
The case studies
Nader Awaad spends £ 350 a week on fuel. Photo: Andy Hall / The Observer Uber driver Nader Awaad said he was now spending £ 350 a week on fuel and had to take on other jobs to make ends meet. He said the increase in fuel prices, along with the alleged changes in the share of each fare given to drivers, meant that he could afford to accept only 8% of the routes offered to him in the application. The other 92% was too short to make money. As a result, he said he now had to take a second job picking up and dropping off at the airport, which left him working from 8am to 11pm. “Most drivers are on the same boat. “Uber does not want its prices to reflect rising costs because it wants to maintain the idea that they are cheap and affordable.” “How can you work in a company if [have to] Do you turn down more jobs than you do? ‘ Previously, Awaad, who is the organizer of the IWGB union, paid just 200 200 a week to refuel his Mercedes-carrier. “This is the money I lose from my total income,” he said. “It’s very challenging right now [to make ends meet]. We must continue to work, we must continue to make a living, we must continue to fight. “ “We’re in a situation where we just can’t afford to keep driving to do our jobs for free,” said Vicky, a NHS community support worker. For her work, Vicky visits patients in their homes, often driving up to 50 minutes between visits. While the NHS offers compensation at 20p per mile after the first 3,500 miles, fuel now costs 22p per mile based on the car’s average fuel consumption, which means Vicky and her colleagues pay to get the job done. their. “I spend more time in the car than I could spend a few days in people’s homes,” she said, adding that she and her colleagues regularly drove more than 10,000 miles a year for work. “We have very little staff, so we all have to drive extra miles. We drive 45-50 minutes for one visit. “Especially as we are in rural areas.” Vicky added that even in normal years the change in subsidy would “cripple” NHS community support staff, but that rising fuel prices had left her and her colleagues at the cutting edge. “You feel like you’re watching the dashboard and the fuel gauge as you drive, trying to drive for the best mileage,” he said. “You feel that you disappoint your colleagues when they ask you to go somewhere and [you] I have to say “I’m at 20p a mile, and that ‘s 45 minutes away, can anyone else go?” “I feel like we have been forgotten,” he added. “There was applause for a key worker, but now people do not think about key workers who find it difficult to put 100 100 a week in fuel in the car.”
