[UK] Agencies dock live-in care workers' pay to cover accommodation

[UK] Agencies dock live-in care workers' pay to cover accommodation
01 Aug 2022

New research has revealed that live-in care workers recruited from overseas to provide care to disabled and elderly people in Britain are being exploited by “unscrupulous” agencies who dock their pay to cover “accommodation costs”, The Guardian reports.

In some cases, these workers - who live with clients to provide round-the-clock care - had their pay reduced by hundreds of pounds a month despite only being paid the minimum wage.

The practice has been exposed in a landmark report published by Nottingham University’s Rights Lab; the world’s biggest modern slavery research group. The report is based on an 18-month study involving London-based live-in care workers from countries including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Hungary and Poland.

It reportedly identifies several cases where workers were given “unclear payslips where the number of hours worked and any deductions were not specified”, including instances where pay appeared to have been unlawfully withheld.

UK employers can legally deduct £8.70 a day - up from £5.35 in 2016 - from workers’ pay if they are providing accommodation. Something that might be necessary for farm workers in rural areas for example.

However, Dr Caroline Emberson, who led the research, and Dr Agnes Turnpenny, from the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University, said it was unethical and “absurd” that low-paid live-in care workers should be charged for accommodation when their jobs required them to stay in clients’ homes overnight.

In addition to the deductions for accommodation costs, the Rights Lab research found that some workers were subject to sexual harassment or racist abuse and were expected to carry out non-caring duties such as cooking and cleaning for the whole family. These workers were often left without support from their agencies, which are supposed to act as an intermediary between workers and clients. Others were not given sick pay or holiday, were required to work more than 80 hours a week with insufficient breaks and were subjected to repayment clauses or exit fees; a practice exposed by the Observer in March.

One care worker reportedly said she had found caring for vulnerable clients “rewarding” but had been left scarred by encounters with a bad employer. “The pay was very low, they charged a lot for accommodation, and they treated me very badly. Basically, they wanted to keep me as a slave,” she said.

The new research also involved academics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the charity Focus on Labour Exploitation (Flex) and paid peer researchers with experience working in the sector themselves. Its findings will further fuel concerns about exploitation in social care, which is facing a staffing crisis and rising cases of modern slavery.

It warns that migrant live-in care workers, many of whom are women, are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Such workers are described as a “hidden workforce” that is often “invisible in the local community” and “unheard” in national policy debates. 

The report calls for a series of policy changes to reduce workers’ vulnerability to labour exploitation, including reforming the system of tied visas - where workers require sponsorship from a particular employer - removing or cutting visa fees and banning or regulating repayment clauses to ensure they are not used to tie workers to their jobs.

It also suggests that in common with agriculture, health and social care could become a sector licensed by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, which would require recruitment agencies to register in order to supply workers to the UK, making it easier for employers to identify “fair and safe” recruiters.

Another of the report’s recommendations is for the Department of Health to expand the remit of the Care Quality Commission to oversee live-in care workers’ employment rights. The department said it had “no plans” to do so.

Dr Emberson said the research showed that urgent changes were needed to ensure live-in care workers, many of whom had come to Britain with the promise of good salaries and working conditions, were protected.

Workers often found themselves “isolated” in clients’ homes and dependent on agencies to ensure their employment rights were upheld, she said. “These vulnerabilities can make this form of care work a trap where the unscrupulous may keep workers in exploitative situations.”

Suzanne Hewitt - a care worker and one of the peer researchers - said that some care workers appeared to be “almost indifferent” towards their exploitation out of fear or because they believed that if they did speak up, nothing would change.

“They silently stew in their frustration, because all they want to do is care for the most vulnerable, all the while being vulnerable themselves,” she said.


Source: The Guardian

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

New research has revealed that live-in care workers recruited from overseas to provide care to disabled and elderly people in Britain are being exploited by “unscrupulous” agencies who dock their pay to cover “accommodation costs”, The Guardian reports.

In some cases, these workers - who live with clients to provide round-the-clock care - had their pay reduced by hundreds of pounds a month despite only being paid the minimum wage.

The practice has been exposed in a landmark report published by Nottingham University’s Rights Lab; the world’s biggest modern slavery research group. The report is based on an 18-month study involving London-based live-in care workers from countries including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Hungary and Poland.

It reportedly identifies several cases where workers were given “unclear payslips where the number of hours worked and any deductions were not specified”, including instances where pay appeared to have been unlawfully withheld.

UK employers can legally deduct £8.70 a day - up from £5.35 in 2016 - from workers’ pay if they are providing accommodation. Something that might be necessary for farm workers in rural areas for example.

However, Dr Caroline Emberson, who led the research, and Dr Agnes Turnpenny, from the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University, said it was unethical and “absurd” that low-paid live-in care workers should be charged for accommodation when their jobs required them to stay in clients’ homes overnight.

In addition to the deductions for accommodation costs, the Rights Lab research found that some workers were subject to sexual harassment or racist abuse and were expected to carry out non-caring duties such as cooking and cleaning for the whole family. These workers were often left without support from their agencies, which are supposed to act as an intermediary between workers and clients. Others were not given sick pay or holiday, were required to work more than 80 hours a week with insufficient breaks and were subjected to repayment clauses or exit fees; a practice exposed by the Observer in March.

One care worker reportedly said she had found caring for vulnerable clients “rewarding” but had been left scarred by encounters with a bad employer. “The pay was very low, they charged a lot for accommodation, and they treated me very badly. Basically, they wanted to keep me as a slave,” she said.

The new research also involved academics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the charity Focus on Labour Exploitation (Flex) and paid peer researchers with experience working in the sector themselves. Its findings will further fuel concerns about exploitation in social care, which is facing a staffing crisis and rising cases of modern slavery.

It warns that migrant live-in care workers, many of whom are women, are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Such workers are described as a “hidden workforce” that is often “invisible in the local community” and “unheard” in national policy debates. 

The report calls for a series of policy changes to reduce workers’ vulnerability to labour exploitation, including reforming the system of tied visas - where workers require sponsorship from a particular employer - removing or cutting visa fees and banning or regulating repayment clauses to ensure they are not used to tie workers to their jobs.

It also suggests that in common with agriculture, health and social care could become a sector licensed by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, which would require recruitment agencies to register in order to supply workers to the UK, making it easier for employers to identify “fair and safe” recruiters.

Another of the report’s recommendations is for the Department of Health to expand the remit of the Care Quality Commission to oversee live-in care workers’ employment rights. The department said it had “no plans” to do so.

Dr Emberson said the research showed that urgent changes were needed to ensure live-in care workers, many of whom had come to Britain with the promise of good salaries and working conditions, were protected.

Workers often found themselves “isolated” in clients’ homes and dependent on agencies to ensure their employment rights were upheld, she said. “These vulnerabilities can make this form of care work a trap where the unscrupulous may keep workers in exploitative situations.”

Suzanne Hewitt - a care worker and one of the peer researchers - said that some care workers appeared to be “almost indifferent” towards their exploitation out of fear or because they believed that if they did speak up, nothing would change.

“They silently stew in their frustration, because all they want to do is care for the most vulnerable, all the while being vulnerable themselves,” she said.


Source: The Guardian

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

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