- Conference
- 2024 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 19 February 2024
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes the findings of UNISON’s report “Expendable Labour” published in November 2023 that found widespread and distressing exploitation of migrant workers in the social care sector. The report found workers exploited by care employers and left exposed by a government that should be protecting them. Given inadequate training, living in poor conditions and threatened with deportation if they speak out, the stark reality for many migrant workers in the UK is that they are under-protected by the employment rights framework and victimised by immigration rules.
Migrant care workers are frequently trapped in inadequate housing, paid rock-bottom wages for excessive hours and locked into unfair contracts. Many have paid colossal fees to take jobs in the UK. Some say they are unable to leave a location even when they’re not on shift or are told to pay back huge sums to the company when they raise concerns about their working conditions or service quality. Sometimes this is backed with threats of deportation.
Migrant social care workers covered by the Local Government Service Group are particularly vulnerable to this kind of ill-treatment because of the hostile environment. All a migrant worker has to do to slip into the clutches of the ‘hostile environment’ is for a worker to stand up for their basic rights at work. If they do so, and are then dismissed from their job by their unscrupulous employer, they will then face deportation in 60 days. This vulnerability is exploited by far too many ruthless employers.
This is a real danger in a sector with the level of employee churn that the social care sector has. It is a fragmented, privatised sector characterised by employers focussed on protecting profits, some of which is extracted from the sector for shareholder dividends. This is not only unethical and dangerous, but also unsustainable.
Proper resourcing and a long-term funding plan that significantly boosts wages is vital to support workers and service users alike. Conference strongly supports UNISON’s campaign for a national care service (NCS) in England called ‘Let’s Make Care Work’ and equivalent campaigns for an NCS in Wales and Scotland.
Until we win these changes, Conference believes that UNISON in local government must continue to challenge the exploitation of migrant workers in the care sector and across the labour market. This includes improving the support and oversight given by local authorities, who have an important role to play in stopping this exploitation. Care homes and care provided in people’s homes is mostly paid for through council budgets and councils set policy for social adult social care in their local area (albeit under constraints from central government).
Instead of raising wages and improving conditions within the social care sector and strengthening migrant worker rights, the Westminster Government has sought to scapegoat and demonise migrant workers and refugees, reduce their rights and make them even more vulnerable to exploitation. Conference calls upon the Local Government Service Group to challenge this rhetoric and these actions and continue to support and organise migrant workers in local government.
Conference therefore calls upon the Local Government Service Group Executive to:
1) Support the work of branches and regions in organising migrant workers with resources and advice;
2) Work with councillors and local authorities to raise awareness and tackle exploitation of migrant workers in the social care sector;
3) Continue to support and engage with campaigns for National Care Services across the UK;
4) Promote awareness of the free JCWI immigration advice helpline for UNISON members;
5) Campaign to improve the rights of migrant workers, working with the union’s migrant worker network;
6) Campaign to dismantle the Hostile Environment.