CARE workers have been calling in sick because they cannot afford fuel to drive to work, a union leader has said.

Ahead of Unison’s annual conference in Brighton next week, the union’s general secretary Christina McAnea attacked the government for “not having a plan” to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

Unison has been campaigning for decent pay rises for millions of public sector workers, including those in the NHS and local government, who Ms McAnea complained have been subjected to wage restraint and below-inflation pay rises for years.

She warned that staff were leaving the NHS in greater numbers than new recruits, including clinical workers, porters, caterers and cleaners.

She said: “The private sector can afford to pay more, so public sector staff are leaving to work for supermarkets down the road.

“Half of local government workers earn less than £25,000 a year. It is now costing care workers £100 to fill up their car. They just cannot afford it.”

Ms McAnea claimed care workers would rather call in sick because they do not have the money for petrol and said that the government was refusing to meet with trade unions to discuss the crisis.

“This feels like an out-of-touch government in its dying days,” she said.

“They have forgotten what hospital and ambulance staff and care workers did during the pandemic. It’s like they want to ignore them now.”

She also said that billions of pounds could be raised by measures such as increasing corporation tax to fund public sector pay rises.

The cost-of-living crisis is expected the main issue at Unison’s annual conference, which begins on Tuesday at the Brighton Centre.

The news comes as petrol prices hit £2 a litre in parts of Sussex, with the RAC declaring a “national fuel crisis”.

The RAC motoring group called it "a truly dark day" as the cost of filling a 55-litre tank reached £100.27 for petrol and £103.43 for diesel.

Photographs taken at Pease Pottage in Sussex show petrol priced at 202.9p and diesel at 204.9p.