Yesterday the UK government announced the Employment Rights Bill. This is a proposed set of 28 improvements to workers' rights which, if implemented, will apply to all workers in the UK, including homecare workers.
Members of Homecare Workers’ Group often share similar challenges, despite working for countless different employers. Therefore, a natural offshoot of our core remit as a day-to-day support network is to voice these collective challenges where the opportunity presents itself.
The Employment Rights Bill is of major significance to all homecare workers, so we felt it only right for the group to reflect on this. Working mainly with the limited information contained in early news stories, members of Homecare Workers’ Group spent yesterday and today recording their immediate reactions to the Bill in messages and voice-notes. Some members did this with highly limited time, fitting it in around their care shifts. We share these contributions as follows:
Monika
“I think these worker rights sound like the right direction for us homecare workers, particularly the proposal to get rid of zero-hours contracts. If somebody’s in hospital or away for any other reason we don’t get paid, which obviously affects our wages and at the moment there’s nothing we can do about that. Moving towards a guaranteed hours contract where we would be paid regardless of that happening is better news for us.
For us I think the issue of unpaid travel time and working additionally without pay is something that also needs to be addressed. I think that’s where there is something lacking within the proposed bill, as that’s the overriding issue for us: not being paid travel time. Hopefully this is something that the government will consider putting in to benefit all workers, not just homecare workers”
Julie
“If the government gets rid of zero-hour contracts and then we go onto guaranteed hours contracts, will homecare employers start to insist that we make ourselves ‘available for work’ at all times of day, every day, as a trade-off for them being able to provide the number of working hours stated on our contracts?” (Julie asks this question after noticing that a homecare employer was offering guaranteed hours contracts, but on enquiring she was told that the fixed hours were conditional on the employee being ‘available to work’ from 7am to 10pm seven days a week)
“I think we just have to make sure there are no loopholes whereby care companies end up keeping us on zero-hours contracts on the basis that we have agreed to it, when in reality we have felt forced to agree because the guaranteed hours contract being offered would involve being ‘on call’ for our employer at all times”
“If the government is going to keep the legal distinction between ‘worker’ and ‘employee’ , then what rights are ‘workers’ going to have?..." (The Employment Rights Bill no longer includes the Labour Party's original commitment to legally class all workers as 'employees', who are able to access a full set of employment rights where 'workers' are not) "...because let’s face it, if the ‘worker’ category stays then care companies are obviously going to still try to class us as workers if it means that we have fewer rights in the workplace. Presumably this would exclude us from benefiting from the proposed improvements to things like sick pay, since ‘workers’ are not eligible for this in the first place?”
“Also, this ‘right to switch off’. Does that mean that we will not be forced to do things like training, staff meetings, all that sort of thing in our own time? That is a real bug-bear of mine because I have so little free time. In the free time that I do have, I’m doing stuff to do with work and I’m doing courses and things and I just think, you need to be able to have a break from it”
Anonymous A
“If a person works a shift from 7am until 3pm, they should be paid for this whole period of time. At the moment we have to accept working long shifts for only a few hours’ pay”
(This issue of unpaid travel time is not addressed in the Employment Rights bill but it is a key component in the systemic exploitation of homecare workers, particularly migrant workers who must spend 40 hours of direct contact time with clients each week in order to meet the terms of the Health & Care Worker Visa)
“Homecare employers should have to cover the cost of staff adding business cover to their car insurance policy. They must supply PPE in accordance with Health & Safety legislation, so why shouldn’t they ensure that care workers have all the resources they need to do their job? Homecare workers also manage the additional financial strain of wear and tear on their car due to the nature of the job”
Tamsin
“As homecare workers we use our own cars on low pay with no financial help. Therefore when our cars break, we have lost our jobs. We use our own phones, again with no financial help. We work 14 hours a day just to make 8 hours of paid employment. All this in return for providing a vital service to people in our community”
Anonymous B
“Migrant care workers should not be tethered to an employer because they cannot easily switch to a new one, as this creates the conditions for exploitation. Perhaps there should be a period of, say, nine months after which a migrant care worker can easily switch their Certificate of Sponsorship to a new employer, if necessary.”
Anonymous C
“The government should look into the minimum wage for care workers. Most people don’t value care work because they see it as a low-grade job, perhaps because the pay is low. They see care work as a role for people who don’t have much of a part to play in society. They forget that care work is a very, very significant occupation and a role that requires professionalism. Those in a professional care role should be acknowledged with a pay increase, as £11.44 per hour is not encouraging at all. Because of the low pay, lots of people don’t want to be involved in care work."
"Waking night shifts in particular should be paid more than £11.44 per hour. There is a genuine health risk involved in keeping awake throughout the night. Those who offer overnight services are making a sacrifice to their own health. Because we are willing to sacrifice our own health for the good of the people we support, we stay awake at night so we can always be at their beck and call. The government should make it statutory that no care provider can pay their night workers below a certain amount per hour."
"My third point is on the topic of migrant care workers. We are aware that other countries like Canada are willing to offer migrant care workers ILR (indefinite leave to remain) within one year of providing their services to the country’s care workforce. The equivalent policy in the UK sets this timeframe at five years. At the moment, so many migrant care workers are leaving the UK to go to Canada, so to protect the care workforce here it could be worth the government considering lowering this, perhaps to three years”
KR
“I’m really happy about the end of zero-hour contracts. My hours and pay are very unstable at the moment and I feel like I can’t plan my life very well because of all the uncertainty. Also, we have no rights to hours but my contract has a lot of terms that benefit my employer, not me. One thing I would like looking at is how much unpaid work we do. I’m not sure how this would go, but there should be better policies on monitoring how much we do as lone workers. I am constantly earning below minimum wage because of call times going over. This in turn is affecting my mental health because I am worrying all the time about money. I feel resentful because I’m working really hard doing a difficult job for peanuts”
Anonymous D
“The availability forms that homecare agencies make carers fill out at the time of hiring are not always followed. We in turn are made to work hours outside of our preferred availability. In doing this we are unable to attend to any personal commitments such as GP appointments, school appointments etc. We are expected to always be available and even during breaks are called in anytime to pick shifts. This also impacts our need to pick any extra work in order to have a decent income to pay bills etc at the end of the month"
"Unpaid travel time can result in long break times between shifts. We end up waiting in our cars, sometimes during extreme weather conditions. Often this is because there is not enough time to go home and rest. Also because we worry about our fuel being used up as a result of driving home and back out again during a time period we are not being paid for."
"An 11 hour gap between the end of an evening shift and the start of a morning shift is not really sufficient as it does not account for the time we spend travelling home and back out again the next day. It’s nowhere near enough time to get things done at home, have a meal and get enough rest”
Rachel
“The Employment Rights Bill proposes a ‘right to payment for a cancelled, moved or curtailed shift’. Yet it is unclear whether or how this proposal would apply in the event that individual care visits are cancelled. For homecare workers, it is these unexpected, unpaid and sometimes numerous gaps in our rotas (alongside zero-hours contracts) that underpin the insecurity of our income, rather than a case of whole shifts being cancelled or moved."
"That said, there is a whole chapter in the Bill dedicated to Adult Social Care, which proposes the creation of an Adult Social Care Negotiating Body. This Body would exist to review the pay and terms employment for care workers. Hopefully then, the work of such a Body would identify issues specific to homecare workers such as that of cancelled visits and unpaid travel time, and ensure that these are resolved. It would be excellent to see the UK following the example set by other countries in Europe by making shift-based pay the norm for homecare workers."
"Naturally, we welcome any proposed improvements to workers' rights. Poor employment conditions are the primary reason social care struggles with recruitment and retention, to the detriment of society as a whole. However - in the case of social care - it is essential to address the elephant in the room… "
"The improvements to workers' rights outlined in the Employment Rights Bill will come at a direct cost to employers. Yet many homecare employers are already stretched to breaking point as a result of social care's systemic and prolonged underfunding by central government."
"In and amongst the big corporate money-spinners, there are thousands of small businesses in the domiciliary care market, run by people who are genuinely trying their best on behalf of clients and staff."
"Every year, the body representing homecare employers, the Homecare Association, publishes statistics about how much homecare providers should be paid per hour of care in order to meet their basic business costs, including employing staff on decent terms and conditions. And every year, to a lesser or greater extent, these statistics evidence a shortfall in the hourly rate being paid to homecare providers by Local Authorities for state-funded care."
"Yet the Local Authorities are unable to pay more. Their adult social care budgets are painfully overstretched, having experienced real-terms cuts in funding from central government at the same time as demand for social care has been rising."
"Whilst I appreciate that perhaps this is a chicken-or-egg scenario, I do wonder how the government expects social care employers to be able to absorb the extra costs associated with the measures outlined in the Employment Rights Bill. I hope that the implementation of any such measures will be preceded by an essential and sustained increase in central government funding for social care.”
We now enter a year-long consultation period in which the details of the Employment Rights Bill will be debated and fine-tuned, before hopefully passing into legislation. It will be great to see the interests of care workers represented by the major trade unions, UNISON and GMB as part of this process (do join one of these if you can afford to!). Homecare Workers’ Group will naturally communicate the perspectives of our members wherever possible.
If you are a homecare worker in England or you used to be, feel free to join Homecare Workers’ Group. We are a free support network run by and for homecare workers.
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