U N I S O N
LG/SS/41/2014
Matthew Egan 020 7121 5417 m.egan2@unison.co.uk
To: Secretaries of Local Government Branches with Social Care Members
Regional Heads of Local Government
Registered Professional/Sectional Bodies – for information
Homecare Forum Members
Social Care Forum Members
11 November 2014
Pay Up For Travel Time: Success in Parliament
The Minister for Care has now requested that a new series of investigations into nonpayment of the National Minimum Wage in the care sector take place.
This positive step is a result of pressure that UNISON has been building on the issue alongside Labour MPs.
UNISON has been working with a number of sympathetic Labour MPs to help progress our
Pay Up For Travel Time campaign.
At the Parliamentary debate on care workers that UNISON helped to secure last week, a number of MPs were highly critical of the Government’s failure to address the endemic levels of illegal pay in the care sector.
Many reiterated UNISON’s key demand that the Government launch proactive investigations into the widespread non-payment of the National Minimum Wage to care workers.
They also highlighted many of the terrible working conditions that many of our care workers are forced to endure.
Andrew Smith MP who opened the debate summed up our case when he said:

“It is appalling that the Government are doing so little to uphold the legal rights of home care workers. It is indefensible that HMRC has stopped carrying out proactive investigations of national minimum wage compliance in home care, despite having revealed the extent of the breaches itself”
The main outcome of the debate was that the Government Minister for Care has now formally made a request that HMRC launch a new investigation into the care sector. The summary of the debate is attached.
He has also agreed to work with UNISON to help put an end to the scandal.
Thank you to everyone who has raised the issue with their MP recently.
With best wishes
Heather Wakefield
National Secretary
Local Government Service Group
Enclosure:
Debate summary
On the 5 th of November there was a Parliamentary debate on Care Workers.
As a result of the UNISON campaign on Home-Care Workers and the National Minimum
Wage, UNISON is mentioned throughout the debate.
Opening the debate, Andrew Smith (Lab, Oxford East) noted that “ the excellent briefing
UNISON supplied for the debate brings out the key disgraceful facts”. He mentioned the
Freedom of Information Act requested from UNISON which showed that 93% of councils in
England and Wales do not make it a contractual condition that the home care providers that they commission must pay home care workers for their travel time. He argued that it is indefensible that HMRC has stopped carrying out proactive investigations of national minimum wage compliance in home care, despite having revealed the extent of the breaches itself.
He noted that he supports, and argued that the House ought to support, the key action that
UNISON are calling for: First, the Government should make ending illegally low pay for care workers a key priority. Secondly, HMRC should be instructed and resourced to do a proper job in ending the widespread breaches of the national minimum wage. Thirdly, care providers and the councils that commission them should be named and shamed when they do not pay the minimum wage. He stated that we should “ all recognise the value of the work that home carers do, and translate that recognition into action to improve their status, pay and training, to nurture good providers who are good employers, and to drive out the rogue operators.”
Mark Lazarowicz (Lab/Co-Op, Edinburgh North and Leith) mentioned the UNISON survey in England and noted that the situation is the same throughout the country. He noted that a UNISON survey in Scotland found that more than 50% of care workers were not paid for travel time under their contracts. Grahame M. Morris (Lab, Easington) questioned whether the Government’s cuts in support for local government are compounding the problem. David Simpson (DUP, Upper Bann) argued that one of the biggest problems that results from underpayment is the recruitment and consistency of staff.
Joan Walley (Lab, Stoke-on-Trent) argued that home care should be part of the discussions about the future of the NHS and it should be made absolutely sure that the

home care workers are paid a proper rate for the job and that travelling time is included.
Paul Blomfield (Lab, Sheffield Central) mentioned that “ last week on Radio 4’s “Today”
Programme, I heard a care commissioner and a care provider debating the issue and
accepting almost as the norm… they deserve better”. Emma Lewell-Buck (Lab, South
Shields) noted that UNISON estimates that, altogether, 220,000 are not paid the minimum wage and argued that under this Government, there are no consequences. David Anderson
(Lab, Blaydon) stated that he had been advised by UNISON that people who were outsourced to Care UK have left the service and argued that we may end up losing people whose experience in the care service totals hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Paul
Burstow (LD, Sutton and Cheam) argued that there needs to be more honest about the long-term funding of the system and said that the Office for Budget Responsibility should be given a new mandate for reporting on that so that there is more transparency and accountability in Parliament.
The Shadow Minister for Health, Liz Kendall said that the Labour Party have put care issues and exploitation in the care sector at the heart of their agenda. She highlighted
Baroness Kingsmill’s proposals, many of which she claimed were similar to those which
UNISON has promoted. She said that a Labour Government will back the actions of councils such as the Labour council in Islington which is putting “ ethical care into practise”. She argued that there is a different way and that “ Islington has shown the way”.
Responding, The Minister of State for Health, Norman Lamb highlighted that it is a criminal offence and not an optional matter and stated that “ employers have to pay for travel time between appointments at people’s homes”. He argued that part of the answer is for care workers to be far more embedded in joined-up and integrated teams of health and care workers. He said that “ UNISON is right to campaign on pay; I support it in doing so, and I am very happy to work alongside it”. He described the situation as “ completely unacceptable, and I hope that all of us in Westminster Hall today acknowledge that we find that practice to be totally unacceptable”. He confirmed that he has specifically asked for a further dedicated focus on the care sector “because it is absolutely needed”. He concluded the session stating that if evidence of poor practice emerges, the Ministers will use their power to request the
CQC to carry out themed inspections of local authorities to ensure that local authorities, as well as providers, are held to account, in order to raise the standards in the sector. He stated that “ the underpayment of wages to care workers is not an acceptable practice”.