The scandal of the care workers who don’t receive the minimum wage

There’s been a great deal of focus on the Minimum Wage recently. Labour pledged an £8 an hour minimum by 2020 (only to get into a war of words with Alan Milburn about whether this was enough). Meanwhile at Tory conference, the odious Lord Freud was questioning whether or not disabled people are “worth” the minimum wage at all – and whether some should work for £2 an hour instead.

Understandably, the Labour Party rushed to defend the principle of the minimum wage, and aspirations to raise it are to be welcomed (although frankly, we should be aiming for a Living Wage – poverty pay in a G7 country in the 21st century should be a ludicrous anachronism).

And yet there are still those effectively earning less than the Minimum Wage today. Worse, there are those taking care of our loved ones and many of the vulnerable citizens of our nation, who are not receiving the paltry minimum wage for their time. Social care workers.

I can sum the situation up no better than Blaydon MP Dave Anderson has done in his recent Early Day Motion (EDM):

“That this House is shocked to note that the National Audit Office reported earlier in 2014 that up to 220,000 care workers in England are illegally paid below the national minimum wage (NMW); further notes that an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of care providers between 2011 and 2013 found that 48 per cent were guilty of non-compliance with the NMW; further notes that homecare workers in particular are consistently not paid for travel time or training, too often have illegal deductions made from their pay and are frequently put on zero-hours contracts to deny them their legal rights; recognises that these arrangements have a deleterious impact on quality of care through high turnover of staff and shortened care visits; calls for a statement from the Government on what measures it is proposing to tackle the illegal under-payment of homecare workers; strenuously suggests that HMRC launch a programme of proactive investigations into the sector to help end non-compliance with the NMW, with adequate resources to ensure a thorough and sustained effort; requests that the Government names and shames care providers and councils who fail to pay or commission the NMW as well as name and praise those care providers and councils who have signed up to UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter; and further calls for a change in the law to make local authorities and care providers jointly and severally liable for non-payment of the NMW as well as the introduction of stringent regulations under the Care Act 2014 to ensure that care workers are paid at least the national minimum wage.”

Often EDMs are decried as “Parliamentary graffiti”, but this is about something that actually matters, from someone who actually knows – Anderson himself is a former care worker. Those who cared for some of the most vulnerable and in need should be paid far more than the minimum wage, not be forced into a grotesque situation where they’re not paid for the necessary and significant time they’re forced to shuttle between appointments. Over the past year both of my grandmothers (co-incidentally, both constituents of Anderson’s) have required care in their own homes. The idea that those who cared for them might not have been paid the minimum wage for their efforts turns my stomach.

And yet in the week since Anderson’s EDM was published, only 20 Labour MPs have signed it. Frontbenchers don’t sign EDMs, but there are still plenty of back bench Labour MPs who should take the time to sign this EDM today, and campaign hard for the rights and wages of those who would care for us, if we needed it.