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A study by the UK’s biggest union shows that despite government efforts to address labor abuse in the sector, care workers who often suffered heavy debts to come to the UK remained low on a daily basis. He is being paid and abused.
According to a Unison survey of 3,000 workers released Tuesday, more than a quarter of immigrant care staff have less than £11.44, with travel time during visits and more than half due to legal requirements. It was not paid.
The third person stated that if he complained about salary, hours, poor accommodation or working conditions he was threatened with fire and subsequently deported unless another employer discovers he would sponsor a visa. He said he put it in danger.
“Backing wasn’t an option,” said Ishioma, 42, aged 2022, who first opened a visa system for low-wage care workers, in 2022, and sold her home and belongings. I said that.
She paid an inflation fee of £7,500 to secure a job, but shared a three-bedroom home with eight others, working less than promised, earning only £100 in her first month Not there.
“The first three months were hell,” Ishioma said. Ishioma stayed with her bullying employer for two more years before funding her training to ensure a better job. Even after leaving her previous role, she spoke to the Financial Times under her pseudonym for fear of retaliation.
Unison said that the design of the visa system leaves vulnerable workers who rely on employer sponsorships, and that this kind of exploitation is almost inevitable in the sector, notorious for its low wages and poor practices. .
“The care staff coming here from overseas is reinforcing the collapsed sector,” said Unison’s general secretary Christina McCaneer, who urged the government to overhaul the visa system.
The surge in overseas recruitment of caregiving was a major factor in promoting record net immigration to the UK in June 2023, with over 900,000 people a year.
Since then, monthly care visa applications have fallen sharply from over 18,000 at the peak of the year to around 2,000. The slide begins before the ban on care workers taking their families to the UK comes into effect and reflects a more stringent scrutiny of visa applications by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
At the same time, the government has set up a £16 million fund to help employers lose their visa sponsorship licenses and help them find a new role.
However, Unison’s investigation, which reflects the results of a recent report by the Minister’s advisor to the Minimum Wage, shows that efforts to curb widely reported labor abuse have not made much difference on the ground. It suggests.
Both unions and employers are calling for wider reforms in the sector, stating that the way local governments award contracts with minimum bidders is to reward fraudsters who take responsibly employers .
Jane Towson, CEO of the Home Care Association, which represents the provider, said when Visa Route opened in 2022, the home office was “distributed sponsored licenses like Smarties” to providers they just set up. I’ve said that.
As a result, many employers did not do enough work for the staff they hired and ultimately bid on contracts that were below the cost of offering.
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Towson said the home office has now gone to other extremes and rejected the request for sponsorship unless the provider can provide an invisible cast iron guarantee.
“It disappeared from the sublime to the ridiculous. No one can hire,” she said.
The government said it was “deeply concerned” about the findings of the report, and would adopt a “zero-tolerance approach” to labour exploitation.
The government has set up a “first step” to ban fraudulent employers from sponsoring overseas workers, and will help affected caregivers find alternative employment, the government added.
