- Conference
- 2025 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference, migrant care workers play a crucial role in maintaining the care and wellbeing of individuals, particularly the elderly and those with disabilities, within the UK. Despite their essential contribution to the workforce, some migrant care workers face exploitation. This exploitation is exacerbated by unscrupulous employers who take advantage of their migrant status and the often precarious legal position of these workers under the tight sponsorship requirements that are placed on them.
Conference notes migrant workers on work visas, particularly those on health and social care visas, are essential to maintaining our health and social services. However, current visa rules make their lives incredibly difficult and leave them vulnerable to exploitation
To obtain a visa, a migrant worker must have a job offer from an approved UK employer, known as a sponsor. The worker remains tied to their sponsor for the duration of their visa. This places employers in an incredible position of power, creating a significant power imbalance, allowing employers to withdraw their sponsorship and put migrant workers at risk of being sent home if they cannot find a new sponsor within 60 days. Employers may arbitrarily withdraw sponsorships from migrant workers for raising concerns, whistleblowing, or even complaining about their poor treatment. Migrant workers are constrained to keep quiet and not speak out in the face of discrimination, sexual harassment, and even rape for fear of losing their certificates of sponsorship and being sent back home.
It is, therefore, essential that migrant care workers should be allowed to work under fair and dignified conditions, free from abuse and exploitation. Migrant care workers deserve the same rights and protections as any other worker. It is imperative when they come to work in the UK that they can work safely, with dignity and without fear of exploitation.
Conference recalls the terms of the 2023 motion “Organising to Win” and welcomes the unprecedented gains made to date.
As a result of a regional social care project, Northern region experienced a higher level of engagement from migrant workers in 2024 than previously. This included members attending a regional social care network, some going on to be trained as UNISON workplace stewards, and one becoming a regional representative on the newly formed national social care committee.
Conference therefore commits to focus the power of Organising to Win on the challenge of empowering migrant workers in the campaign for the security, equity and fairness that all public services workers should enjoy, regardless of nationality, race or ethnic origin. UNISON must end the enslavement and exploitation of our migrant worker members through the power of workplace organising.
From this work we have heard testimonies of migrant worker’s experiences. These are wide ranging but at best can be described as exploitation, at worst, modern slavery. This includes employers simply not paying staff for their work for lengthy periods of time, after workers have paid significant sums of money to come to the UK for work, and employers threatening to deport employees who escalate the issue. The testimonies include inappropriate accommodation provided employers as part of migrant workers employment arrangement, including shared rooms. When accommodation bills are not paid by the employer, this has resulted in UNISON members being chased for money they do not owe by HMRC and the local authority. This puts migrant workers into increasingly vulnerable positions, often having to rely on local communities and churches for support to live.
When migrant workers lose their jobs, they risk financial hardship, debt, and even the loss of residency rights. This creates immense stress and insecurity not just for the migrant workers but also for their families who depend on their visa status and are consequently affected. These conditions leave them trapped and powerless, unable to challenge unsafe and unfair practices without fear of deportation. Ideally, migrant workers who come to the UK should be seen and treated as serving the country, not individual employers.
To address them, UNISON proposed a Certificate of Common Sponsorship for health and social care workers on visas. The Certificate of Common Sponsorship is a system where multiple organisations and entities in the health and social care sector jointly sponsor migrant workers, breaking the exclusive link between a single employer and a worker’s visa status.
The importance of UNISON’s new visa campaign for these members cannot be overstated. The current sponsorship system results in migrant workers being afraid to raise concerns regarding their employment, for fear of being deported. Some unscrupulous employers take advantage of this and threaten deportation to silence migrant workers. This very real fear also presents a barrier to migrant workers getting active in UNISON. Increasingly we are supporting migrant workers to secure alternative sponsorship arrangements through new employment before we are able to provide support to challenge the practices of the previous employer. Often by that point it is too late and so bad, sometimes illegal, employment practices go without challenge.
Benefits of this system include:
1) Worker empowerment: Migrant workers would have the freedom to change employers within the sector, reducing fear of retaliation;
2) Improved working conditions: Employers would need to maintain fair practices to retain staff, fostering safer and more equitable workplaces;
3) Sector resilience: Allowing mobility within the health and social care sector could alleviate staffing shortages and improve workforce management.
The implications of this are as follows:
a) Political: Supporting this reform aligns with the government’s commitment to ethical labour practices and workforce resilience, enhancing the UK’s reputation as a fair employer;
b) Economic: Better working conditions and improved retention would reduce turnover costs and support a stable and productive workforce in health and care;
c) Social and public health: Health and social care workers who feel secure in their roles are more likely to provide better care, improving outcomes for patients and clients and reducing the risks associated with high turnover.
UNISON South West lobbied Parliament and these issues were shared with MPs present. This has produced a significant result, with an Early Day Motion now tabled in Parliament calling for reform of the current situation. This includes introducing a Certificate of Common Sponsorship, which would allow migrant workers to change employers within the sector without risking their visa status.
Conference, this motion highlights the critical need for improved rights for migrant care workers and calls for concerted action to stop unscrupulous employers from exploiting vulnerable workers in this vital sector.
Conference, therefore, calls on the National Executive Council to:
i) Campaign to promote the value of migrant care workers in the UK;
ii) Campaign for a Certificate of Common Sponsorship to change the sponsorship requirements for migrant care workers and for employers to be removed as the sponsor and to be replaced with a sector wide public sponsor;
iii) Work with Labour Link to apply political pressure to win the visa campaign and to identify and target the specific legislation, policies and employer practices that enslave and exploit UNISON members;
iv) Lobby the government and Members of Parliament to initiate a parliamentary debate on reforms and work towards legislative changes supporting ethical immigration policies for critical sectors like health and social care;
v) Work with service groups, regions, self organised groups, Migrant Workers’ Network, Overseas Nursing Network, and other relevant structures of UNISON, as well as other organisations and allies including the TUC, to launch a campaign to contact Members of Parliament to publicly endorse UNISON’s campaign for visa reform and support the proposal for a Certificate of Common Sponsorship;
vi) Campaign for fair wages and benefits for migrant care workers;
vii) Campaign for safe and respectful working conditions to ensure that the workplace is free from abuse, harassment, or neglect. Migrant care workers must be entitled to clear and fair contracts with transparent terms regarding working hours, tasks, and responsibilities;
viii) Campaign to ensure that migrant care workers can access legal support and safe channels to report abuses without fear of retaliation, deportation, or losing their livelihood;
ix) Campaign for Mobility rights so that workers should not be tied to one employer through exploitative contractual arrangements or sponsorships that limit their ability to change employers when necessary, particularly in cases of abuse or poor working conditions;
x) Work with branches and regions to organise migrant care workers and increase our migrant worker activist base and continue to develop guidance around migrant worker rights and encourage self organised groups, Migrant Workers’ Network, regions and branches to continue organising and engaging migrant workers;
xi) Develop and roll out an agreed UNISON migrant workers charter to get employers to sign up to;
xii) To train, mentor and empower members, activists and leaders among our migrant workers and anti-racist allies, and equip them with the organising and campaign methods required to build power and deliver radical change;
xiii) Establish the annual UN international migrant workers day of 18 December as an annual UNISON Day of Action in support of migrant workers delivering UK public services and plan a unionwide mobilisation including a UK parliamentary lobby on 18 December 2025 in support of the UNISON campaign for changes to the social care visa.