“Both unions and employers are calling for wider reform of the sector, saying that the way local
authorities award contracts to the lowest bidder is rewarding rogue operators who undercut
responsible employers.”
Visiting Angels South West Kent & East Sussex is such a responsible and carer-centric employer. It pays it care staff above the minimum wage, it pays travel time and mileage. It does not employ anybody on a care visa. The company sources carers from locals who want to do good work in the community without being exploited. Home care in essence is a government regulated butler service.
But often the reality for other carers is quite different.
Read the article from the FT and tremble!
Delphine Strauss in London
Care workers who often incurred big debts to come to the UK are still routinely underpaid and
mistreated despite government efforts to address labour abuses in the sector, according to research
by Britain’s biggest union.
More than a quarter of migrant care staff were paid less than the statutory hourly minimum of
£11.44, according to a Unison survey of 3,000 workers published on Tuesday, and more than half
were not paid for time travelling between visits, a legal requirement.
A third said they had been threatened with dismissal if they complained about pay, hours, poor
accommodation or working conditions, and then risked deportation unless they found another
employer to sponsor a visa.
“Going back was not an option,” said Isioma, a 42-year-old who sold her house and belongings in
Nigeria to come to the UK in 2022, when the government first opened the visa system to lower
paid care workers.
She paid inflated fees of £7,500 to secure a job but found herself sharing a three-bedroom house
with 8 others and working fewer hours than promised, earning just £100 in her first month
“The first three months were hellish,” said Isioma, who stayed with her bullying employer for a
further two years before she was able to fund her own training to secure a better job. Even after
leaving her previous role, she spoke to the Financial Times under a pseudonym for fear of
reprisals.
Unison said the design of the visa system left vulnerable workers reliant on their employer’s
sponsorship and made this kind of exploitation all but inevitable in a
sector notorious for low pay and poor practice.
“Care staff who come here from overseas are shoring up a crumbling sector,” said Christina
McAnea, Unison’s general secretary, urging the government to overhaul the visa system.
A surge in overseas recruitment in care was a big factor fuelling record net immigration of more
than 900,000 to the UK in the year to June 2023.
Monthly applications for care visas have since fallen sharply, from more than 18,000 at the peak to
about 2,000 recently. This slide began before a ban on care workers bringing family to the UK took
effect and reflects tougher scrutiny of visa applications by the Home Office.
At the same time, the government has been trying to help migrant workers whose employers have
lost their licence to sponsor visas, with a £16mn fund set up to help them find new roles.
But Unison’s survey — which echoes the findings of a recent report by the Low Pay Commission, an
adviser to ministers on the minimum wage — suggests that efforts to curb widely reported labour
abuses have not made much difference on the ground.
Both unions and employers are calling for wider reform of the sector, saying that the way local
authorities award contracts to the lowest bidder is rewarding rogue operators who undercut
responsible employers.
Jane Towson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, which represents providers, said that
when the visa route opened in 2022, the Home Office was “handing out sponsor licences like
Smarties” to providers that had only just set up.
As a result, many employers did not have enough work for the staff they had hired and ended up
bidding for contracts below the cost of provision.
Towson said the Home Office had now gone to the other extreme, refusing sponsorship requests
unless providers could give unfeasible cast-iron guarantees there would be work available.
“It’s gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. No one can hire anybody,” she said.
The government said it was “deeply concerned” about the report’s findings and would take a “zero
tolerance approach” to labour exploitation.
It had already set out “first steps” to ban rogue employers from sponsoring overseas workers, and
would help any care workers affected find alternative employment, the government added.
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