"A better life at work..."

 

"The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) will be making its way through Parliament soon. It will introduce new bargaining bodies for care workers and school support staff in England as well. Find out more here: https://magazine.unison.org.uk/2025/02/11/the..."-employment-rights-bill-the-story-so-far/

"Frontline staff face lottery when it comes to essential criminal-check costs"

 

Just imagine that you go for a job as a carer (nearly always low paid) then find out you have to pay for your criminal record check (DBS), not your employer! 42% of employers in a recent UNISON survey recharge their employees for these statutory checks in order to work and care. 2.4 million workers. Incredible. Some of these care workers have to pay for multiple checks since they have to work for different employers to get a full time wage.

Hat tip to UNISON care worker Jordan Creed (and branch secretary of the London Voluntary Organisations Branch) for exposing this national scandal. 

"Staff working with vulnerable people face a lottery when it comes to who pays for an essential check needed to do their jobs, says UNISON.

Employers have a legal duty to carry out criminal record checks on frontline public sector workers. A recent survey from the union found that more than four in ten (42%) are passing on the cost of that to their employees.

UNISON believes this means almost two and a half million frontline public sector workers are paying for their own criminal record checks.

Women (74%) and the lowest paid (85%) make up the majority of people working in jobs that require the checks, the research found.

However, UNISON can find no pattern to explain why some employers cover the cost and others – often facing the same recruitment and budgetary pressures – force staff to foot the bill.

According to the survey, over two-thirds (69%) of staff who do not currently pay for the disclosure and barring service check would be put off applying for a job where they would have to meet them cost themselves.

Employees complain about being forced to pay for a new check if they get promoted or move within the same organisation.

UNISON said the law should be changed so employers cannot pass the cost onto staff. The fee was waived during the pandemic for health and social care applicants and the union said government covering the cost for all public sector workers made sense during the current recruitment crisis.

UNISON assistant deputy general secretary Jon Richards said: “People already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis should not be forced to pay to work. Most staff who need these checks earn below the national average and money docked from their pay is cash they can ill afford to lose.

“Criminal record checks are vital and bosses have a legal duty to carry them out. The law should be changed to stop rogue employers from docking money for work essentials such as these checks from their staff.

“Such a seemingly small change would make a huge difference to the tens of thousands of staff who currently have to pay for their own checks. People are being put off applying for jobs and even going for promotion because of the cost, which is no good for them or their employers.”

A cross-party group of MPs will discuss the report’s findings at a parliamentary roundtable event on Tuesday 5 December. MPs, including chair of the home affairs select committee Dame Diana Johnson, will hear directly from frontline public sector workers at the event in Room U, Portcullis House from 12:30pm-1:30pm".

UNISON Survey on the charging of DBS checks to workers closes next Friday 4 August 2023

 

This is incredible to many people (myself included) that some employers charge their workers the cost of having a DBS check? These are mostly low paid care workers doing difficult jobs and some of them work for different employers, all of whom want them to pay for this check out of their wages?

Please check out this survey before Friday https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90571287/DBS-checks-survey

Well done to the London Vol Org branch for setting up this survey (and branch secretary Jordon)

Newham will become a London Living Wage Employer AND sign the UNISON Ethical Care Charter

This is great news! At tonight's Newham Council meeting it was agreed by Councillors to endorse the decision by our Executive Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz,  for us to become a London Living Wage Employer and to sign (and become) a signatory to the UNISON Ethical Care Charter. 

Rokhsana had pledged to Newham Citizens in April 2018 that if elected she would introduce a Living wage for all Newham directly employed staff and contractors. 

The Labour campaign for such a Living Wage was started on 22 February 2007 (check this blog for mentions of "Living Wage") by members of Newham TULO (Trade unions for Labour). 

After a long 11 years I am so pleased (and personally feel quite emotional) that Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, is delivering on our campaign after so many years and introducing a London Living wage AND signing the UNISON Ethical Care Charter. 

After next April we will have up to 1000 low paid predominantly local care worker being given FTE pay rises of around £100 per week (and £5000 per year) 

This charter is a "Living wage plus" for care workers, making sure that as well as a living wage they get occupational sick pay, training and paid time for travelling and expenses. 

This proposal will still need to be agreed at the 2019 Full Council budget meeting (which due to Tory Austerity cuts will be eye wateringly painful but I cannot think that any Councillors will want to put this item at risk).

"Sleep-in shifts judgment is a huge mistake"

This judgement is bad news for hundreds of thousands of low paid care workers (including my
niece).

Being paid not even the national minimum wage for work is simply a disgrace. I hope UNISON lawyers can find a way forward on this.

If not we need to campaign to force employers to pay. Local authorities can play a role in this as well as unions. See UNISON press release below. 

"The legal decision today (Friday) not to count sleep-in shifts as working time is wrong, and is at odds with legal precedents and a common sense understanding of what counts as work, says UNISON.

Today’s Court of Appeal judgment in favour of Mencap overturns a previous ruling at an employment appeal tribunal in April 2017.

UNISON took the initial case to an employment tribunal on behalf of care worker Claire Tomlinson-Blake. It argued that sleep-in shifts should count as working time, and should be paid at hourly minimum wage rates or higher.

The union argues that most care workers on sleep-in shifts aren’t sleeping. Most nights they have to get up to care for people, are on constant call, and are not free to come and go from their place of work.

Commenting on the case, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “This judgment is a mistake, but let’s be clear where the fault lies. The blame for this sorry state of affairs that’s hitting some of the country’s lowest paid workers must be laid at the government’s door.

“Ministers are so consumed by Brexit that they’re ignoring huge problems around them. Social care is in crisis, and this situation wouldn’t have arisen if the government had put enough money into the system and enforced minimum wage laws properly.

“Sleep-in shifts involve significant caring responsibilities, often for very vulnerable people. With too few staff on at night, most care workers are often on their feet all shift, only grabbing a few minutes sleep if they can.

“That’s why it’s such a disgrace that workers have been paid a pittance for sleep-ins – with some getting just £30 for a ten-hour shift.

“As a society we should value care staff and the work they do, but unfortunately we don’t. After this judgment who could blame care workers for leaving in their droves.”

As a result of the judgment, UNISON is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Notes to editors:
– Last autumn the government introduced the social care compliance scheme. This aims to ensure that companies and charities providing care services to the elderly and vulnerable adults settle the back-pay owed to staff for sleep-in shifts that haven’t been paid at minimum wage rates.
– Most workers have not yet received any of their backdated wages, and it’s not clear what today’s ruling means for staff owed money.
– More information on UNISON’s position on the social care compliance scheme is available here.