- Conference
- 2025 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 12 February 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that migrant workers working across local government services face workplace discrimination and exploitation linked to their visa status. The complexity of the UK’s immigration system means that different visa types can lead to different challenges for members and branches. Many migrant workers across public services have been affected by changes to the skilled worker visa, particularly dramatic increases in salary thresholds last year. Many UNISON members who work in public service roles as recent graduates have found themselves having to move to the private sector in order to meet the salary levels set out for their job roles. UNISON members on family visas and other visa types not linked to employment contend with severe financial issues due to Home Office visa fees and charges and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS). Many migrant workers pay a double tax as they contribute through their taxes as well as through the additional surcharge they pay towards the NHS. In addition, because of ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) they are unable to rely on essential safety nets available to others.
Conference notes that for workers on the health and social care visa, the sponsorship link with employers has provided fertile ground for exploitation and modern slavery. Care is one of the most precarious sectors in the UK. Firms regularly go under or lose their council contracts. The consequence is staff find themselves without work and in financial hardship. For migrant care workers, the situation is even worse. Workers are fearful of raising concerns about employment practices when the same employers can remove their visa sponsorship. Unscrupulous employers are using the threat of removal to a care worker’s home country to victimise migrant workers who whistle blow/complain about their treatment.
Conference welcomes the work by local government branches to recruit and organise migrant workers in the social care sector. UNISON has increasing numbers of migrant workers becoming active in the union as workplace reps, on our National Social Care Committee (England) and on equivalent bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Increasing representation has enabled our migrant worker members to set the bargaining agenda at workplace level and our campaigning agenda at national level. This has seen activity across all UNISON regions ranging from migrant worker charters, campaigns aimed at local authorities, MPs, MSPs, Assembly members and Westminster and national governments. These campaigns have responded to the voices and experiences of our members and the challenges they have experienced in the UK.
Conference notes that a key concern for our members has been to challenge the sponsorship element of the health and social care visa. Conference believes that moving towards a sector-wide sponsorship scheme run by an independent agency with a health and social care focus would remove the ever present threat used by unscrupulous employers to threaten workers with the Home Office. Being able to move employer would enable overseas staff to challenge exploitation without fearing deportation.
Conference asserts the need for UNISON to ensure that our bargaining and negotiating agenda at workplace and national level reflects the experiences and concerns of migrant workers. Only a trade union approach to tackling discrimination and exploitation will truly transform the experiences of our migrant worker members. Conference welcomes activity being led at branch, regional and national level to raise the knowledge and confidence of UNISON reps and activists to take an organising approach, with leadership from migrant workers themselves. Conference also welcomes increased legal resources from UNISON to support our migrant worker members, including expanded hours for the JCWI immigration advice helpline as well as specialist legal support for immigration casework. This support can be vital for members facing threats from employers and the Home Office around complex and contradictory immigration rules.
Conference therefore calls on the Local Government Service Group Executive to build on this work by:
1) Supporting the work of branches and regions in organising migrant workers with resources and advice, ensuring that relevant advice is widely promoted;
2) Working with elected politicians at all levels and local authorities to raise awareness and tackle exploitation of migrant workers in the social care sector;
3) Campaigning with UNISON’s migrant workers network for the removal of sponsorship rights from individual employers in social care, to be replaced with a sector-wide visa scheme;
4) Continuing to campaign for a rights based immigration policy which treats migrant people with respect and dignity including an end to the IHS and NRPF, and for the removal of income thresholds.
