Workers in care homes need an urgent pay rise and more robust protection against the coronavirus, union leaders and employers have told government ministers. Many care home networks are operating with absence rates of about 10% as staff self-isolate. This is stretching already strained rotas because even before the epidemic, there were about 122,000 vacancies in the sector. There are also fears that, as death tolls in care homes rise and reports of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) continue, new recruits will be deterred from joining up. One of the largest charitable providers of care homes, St John Care Trust, has written to the care minister, Helen Whateley, calling for the government to fund a new £11.50 hourly minimum wage for frontline workers in social care for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish government has already announced a 3.3% pay rise for care workers backdated to 1 April in recognition of their role in tackling Covid-19. Care bosses believe the temporary state-funded boost to wages is needed to put care workers, who are often on minimum wage, at least on a par with supermarket workers and delivery drivers. A quarter of care workers are on zero-hours contracts and the median pay rate for one working in the independent sector is £8.10 per hour, according to Skills for Care. The trade union, Unison, said it had received 3,500 messages “from anxious and frightened employees” in the care sector to a PPE alert hotline it set up earlier in the crisis. It said that in some cases it appeared supermarket workers and delivery drivers were better protected. “Care workers report that protective kit is still being locked away, having to make single-use masks last all week and being told they don’t need masks because residents aren’t displaying virus symptoms,” said Dave Prentis, Unison’s general secretary. “Many talk too of there not being enough essential items like hand sanitiser, gloves and visors to go around. Care staff working in residential homes and out in the community feel like they – and the people they care for – are bottom of the priority list for PPE.” One worker told the hotline: “My care company has now issued staff with face masks. We have been told to use one a day for every visit, regardless of the number of calls we have. We’re being asked to save them up and take them back to the office to be sanitised once a week.” Another said: “I work in social care and provide intimate care to elderly residents daily. We have access to aprons and gloves but no masks. We were given five paper masks and told we were not getting any more. I was told to reuse these and wear them for many days at a time.” The Department for Health and Social Care has said the “full weight of the government” is behind getting PPE supplies to where they are needed and that it is “working around the clock to give the NHS and the wider social care sector the equipment and support they need to tackle this outbreak”. Concerns about staffing levels in some of the areas worst-affected by Covid-19 mean recruitment campaigns are being planned to attract workers furloughed from other jobs. The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in north-west England is launching a drive this week to recruit thousands. It said councils in the region had seen staff numbers cut by between 25 and 50% and needed care workers in residential homes and in people’s own homes, as well as cleaners and cooks. It said each recruit would undergo criminal records checks, receive a basic induction and training and would be given adequate PPE.