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Glasgow City Council is appealing a 2017 tribunal decision that granted foster care workers Jimmy and Christine Johnston rights including sick pay, holiday pay, a guaranteed minimum wage and protections for whistleblowing.

The ruling marked the first time in the UK that foster care workers had been found to be entitled to employment rights, as most work under “agreements” rather than standard contracts of employment.

The Employment Tribunal found in 2017 that their designation as “agreements” fails to reflect the “very high degree of control” by the council, by which foster care workers could not work for anyone else or turn down placements from the local authority.

The IWGB trade union, which brought the case on behalf of the Johnstons, has said the absence of whistleblowing protections, combined with the general precarity of their employment conditions, means foster care workers are often intimidated when it comes to speaking out, including on safeguarding concerns or other matters that would improve care standards for children.

Jimmy Johnston, claimant of the case against Glasgow City Council, said: “As foster care workers, we provide an essential public service, caring for some of the UK’s most vulnerable children.

“All we want is to be allowed to do our job safely and well. Hopefully when all this is finished, we will have secured the rights we need to do this, not just for us, but for every single foster care worker in the UK.”

The Johnstons will be represented today by Aidan O’Neill QC, who is instructed by Balfour + Manson.