- Conference
- 2026 National Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 5 November 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that migrant workers working across the third sector 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. 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. The Government has proposed increasing the period required to apply for indefinite leave to remain from five years to ten years, which means these costs will double over the lifetime of their visa.
Conference notes that for workers on the health and social care visa, the sponsorship link with employers has provided fertile ground for exploitation. 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 may use the threat of removal to a care worker’s home country to victimise migrant workers who whistle blow / complain about their treatment. These challenges can be enhanced if the worker identifies as LGBT+ and the fear of homo, bi+ and/or trans phobia is very real to some workers who may not know their rights in Britain.
Conference welcomes the work by Community branches to recruit and organise migrant workers delivering social care in the third 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 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 Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants 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 Community Service Group Executive to build on this work by:
1)Supporting the work of community branches 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 third sector;
3)Promoting the work of Rainbow Migration to all community branches, which gives them the tools to reach out to migrant LGBT+ workers;
4)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;
5)Campaigning with UNISON’s migrant workers network against Government proposals to increase the period before it’s possible to apply for indefinite leave to remain;
6)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;
7)Encouraging employers in the third sector delivering care services, and local authorities that give contracts to third sector employers to deliver care services, to sign up to the migrant worker’s charter;
8)Working with branches and regions to negotiate the delivery of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learning by employers delivering social care services in the third sector.