When care workers don't have basic working rights those they care for suffer too
I worked as a homecare worker for about 18 months.
I stopped because I couldn’t afford to do it anymore.
Homecare earned me only four or five pounds an hour – well below minimum wage – because my company wouldn’t pay me for the time it took to travel between service users.
On a typical day I’d visit people to care for them from 6:30am until lunchtime. On an average day I’d spend four and a half hours in people’s home and over two hours travelling between them – but I’d only be paid for the time spent in people’s homes.
And because the calls were often organised back to back, it meant many homecare workers were forced to cut time off from calls in order to arrive on time.
I would end up rushing at one service user’s home in order to leave 10 minutes early so that I would be on time to the next call. This meant I didn’t have enough time for a proper chat, which felt awful when so many of the people that I cared for had no other visitors at all most days.
15 minute calls were particularly difficult.
Sometimes, I would be required to make somebody lunch and check that their medication had been taken properly; 15 minutes is just about enough time to do that and leave the kitchen tidy – unless you want to have a chat with the service user or check how they are feeling that is.
There simply isn’t the time.
15 minute calls treat people receiving care like a customer at a fast food restaurant: a number, an order, a box to be ticked, and then onto the next one. There is little ‘caring’ about arriving at someone’s home, heating something up in the kitchen, checking a medication box and leaving with barely a conversation in between.
It was not until I began working in the office to recruit care workers and noticed a UKHCA pamphlet lying around which had an article about this issue, that I realised that not only was this practice of not paying care worker’s travel time unfair, but it was actually illegal.
I broached the subject with my manager several times only to be rebuffed, until eventually discussing the issue at a senior management meeting.
The managing director told me that I did not know anything about business, and that I did not speak for the care workers, who were ‘fine the way things are’ and happy with their pay. He offered excuses such as increased pay on bank holidays and pay for training, which don’t affect the compliance with the national minimum wage for the rest of the time.
Care workers can report this to HMRC but the vast majority don’t – and even if they do, a lack of resources means investigations are rare.
What’s needed is a focused campaign to halt rogue companies from treating staff and service users in this way, which will need to include an increase in awareness among care workers so that they know what their rights are.
For the sake of those who are cared for – and for care workers themselves – we need to see a fundamental change in the way homecare is delivered.
We are all going to grow old, we all have elderly parents, grandparents and so on. Care affects us all and we should not be providing elderly and vulnerable people with substandard care.
We need to stop treating care workers like disposable labour, not even worthy of the basic minimum wage, when people’s lives are in their hands.
The author of this article is a former care worker who prefers to remain anonymous.
Paul Blomfield MP has organised a Westminster Hall debate on minimum wage enforcement in the homecare sector on Wednesday afternoon. Please encourage your local MP to attend via this email action.
15 Responses to “We need to stop treating care workers like disposable labour”
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David Davies
The treatment of those who actually fought for this country is an utter disgrace which shames us all. The devolution of the blame for the lack of public services, without the funds, is deliberate government policy. They have already slashed 50% of the support grant for local authorities, and have now allowed them to raise council tax by 2% to `compensate’. Gullible panjandums like Tony Lloyd has donned his mayoral robes, after the people of Manchester said that they did not want a mayor. By the time that he has fitted out his office, and appointed his extensive entourage, there will be nothing left in the Northern Poorhouse.
Alina
I totally agree with that, even in care homes the service user ain’t getting the quality of care, health care assistance are apart of nursing team and we need to be treated in that manner, the wage is not brilliant, it can be made better, it can be draining physically and mentally. I do love my job It’s very rewarding
Mary
I have worked as a carer for many years now and it has went from bad to worse as the years have went on, it is not about giving the best care anymore it is all about profit and it is disgusting, at present we don’t get paid the time between visits but we do get the petrol allowance but in April that will change as they say they can no longer afford to pay petrol allowance which will be a hardship for a lot of carers, on my rota they say the time between each call is a 5 minute drive even though it could be a 20 minute drive which puts a lot of pressure on carers and makes them rush which is when mistakes are made this therefore could mean an extra hour of your own time added onto your day just to visit each service user and when we complain it falls on deaf ears, so I could work 10 hours and be paid for 7, I thought this was my job for life but I am having to rethink as the financial burden on me will be too much.
John Woods
The difficulty with people in many professions is that they do the work they love to do. Employers know this and take advantage of it. In a job like a care worker, or a baby-sitter, where the worker is working for an agency, the rate they are paid is the same as if they were working for the provider. On top of that rate the agency takes about 20% which could have gone to the worker if the provider could afford to employ them full-time. It is time to sort out this mess that harms both provider and worker.