Unpaid working time in domiciliary care... a conversation underway
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
We did a double take when we heard unpaid travel time mentioned on a recent episode of the BBC's Panorama. We'd spoken with the reporter about the issue but did not know it was due to be covered in this programme, albeit briefly.
In the same week, myself and a migrant member of our community met the Minister for Employment Rights at the Department of Business and Trade, to talk about this very issue.
We published a post about these two related events on TikTok and it took on a life of it's own.
As of writing, the video has 277,000 views and over 4,000 'likes'. The real story, however, is the comments section.
There are now over 400 comments from scores of current and former domiciliary care workers, as well as people who draw on social care and care providers. Here are just some of the comments:
You get the picture...
About the issue: unpaid working time in domiciliary care
Travel and waiting time of up to 60 mins between care visits should be paid, but most of the time this doesn't happen, such that:
Our contracted hourly rate of pay is misleadingly high. In reality we're paid far less per hour, and it varies from run to run
This makes it hard to make ends meet in homecare, and difficult for visa holders to meet their minimum salary requirement without exploitative working hours
It allows underpayment of the National Minimim Wage to slip under the radar
We've been helping domiciliary care workers understand the impact of unpaid travel and waiting time on their pay via our free True Hourly Pay Calculator.
We'll keep doing what we can to raise awareness of this long-neglected issue.
Peer support
Homecare Workers’ Group is a not-for-profit peer support network run by and for homecare workers in England. We host a secure online community, fortnightly drop-ins and quarterly in-person meetups around the country, as well as letting homecare workers know about other ways to get involved in meaningful activities outside of work.
Comments