Statutory sick pay rates must be higher in addition to payment from day one, demanding social care providers go further even before law
The exploitation of migrant nursing staff in social care cannot go unchallenged while MPs debate the make-up of the new enforcement agency, the nursing union leader will say at a conference of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) workplace representatives from the NHS and social care that begins today [Thursday 17 October].
Professor Nicola Ranger will use her first speech as General Secretary to urge the government to renew its commitment to a full investigation of exploitation, first made by the Home Secretary during the election after RCN members blew the whistle.
As part of the Employment Rights Bill, which has its first full reading in the Commons on Monday, the government has committed to establishing a Fair Work Agency, a new centralised body to enforce labour standards. The nursing union fears that any multi-year delay in the creation of the agency would allow the problem to worsen.
In a speech to RCN trade union representatives from frontline workplaces across the UK, the RCN’s General Secretary and Chief Executive will praise the bill’s commitment to statutory sick pay from day one in social care but urge ministers to increase the level too.
The union will use the conference to release a fresh set of expectations of social care and other non-NHS service providers and employers of nursing staff. The new employment standards framework calls for fair pay in the sector but specifically higher, contractual levels of sick pay.
On exploitation, Professor Ranger will say:
“For years, rogue social care employers and recruitment agencies have exploited migrant care workers with almost total impunity. They have shackled people with eye-watering debt, confiscated passports and threatened deportation. It is heartbreaking and unacceptable.
“The government is right to establish a new agency to tackle this scourge, but our migrant colleagues cannot wait years for the wheels of legislation to turn and for the problem to go unchallenged. Ministers must launch their promised urgent investigation without delay.”
On sick pay, Professor Ranger will say:
“The government is right to move on when nursing staff receive the very basic sick pay. The lessons of the pandemic, when sick pay was urgently reformed to support staff and keep patients safe, need to be learned.
“Today’s situation only adds to the worry of a nurse or care worker when they’re unwell and forces people to return before they’re well. The standards we release today show social care providers that our expectation of a good employer is to cover sick pay at the contractual rate.”
On the rejection of the NHS pay award last month, Professor Ranger will say:
“By rejecting the government’s pay award, nursing staff are raising their voice and standing up for a strong NHS. My message to ministers was that we should work together constructively to find answers to the low pay crisis and poor staffing levels.
“Nurses do not want to go into next year with this hanging over them – patients and the nursing profession deserve better than they’ve had and ministers should take the chance to put things on a better path.”
Ends
Notes to editors
In the last three years, calls to the RCN’s advice team about repayment clauses, debts which migrant care workers are forced to pay, increased six-fold.
June 2024 – Home Secretary commits to investigation, saying: “Stories of people being unfairly charged thousands of pounds by agencies and employers who are profiting from overseas recruitment are a total disgrace. There must be a full investigation into these reports to ensure standards are upheld, and exploitative employers are prosecuted.”
