Government urged to stop blocking bill so care workers are paid for travel time

The Labour Party has written to the government asking to ensure time is given to a bill blocked by Jacob Rees-Mogg which would end the “scandal of home care workers” earning less than the legal minimum wage when they are not paid for travel time between individual care visits.

The Bill was allocated time in January but was blocked by Rees-Mogg before a debate or vote could take place. Labour is now seeking time for this private members’ bill in the new parliamentary session, which will begin in September.

The Bill, titled the ‘National Minimum Wage Act 2020’ was introduced by Paula Barker MP and was intended to focus on government ministers tightening up legislation with respect to the payment of the national minimum wage and to end home care workers being discriminated against and denied their full entitlement under the law.

In the letter, Deputy Leader Angela Rayner and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, Thangam Debbonaire, state that it is a “national disgrace care workers are being paid less than the legal minimum wage, never mind a fair wage that they can live on.

“The very least the government can do for our carers is to pass a very simple piece of legislation to close this loophole and ensure carers are paid the legal minimum wage to which they are entitled to.”

Highlighted in the letter is the case of care workers in Haringey who were successful in a legal action in 2020 which ruled that companies commissioned by the council who were not paying staff for time spent travelling between care visits had broken the law.

Care workers were found to have been working up to 14 hours each day for pay under half the legal minimum hourly rate. Each received around £10,000 in backdated pay that they had been denied by their employer.

In 2019, the Low Pay Commission estimated 420,000 out of two million care workers paid the minimum wage were not being awarded the proper legal rate.

Ms Rayner and Ms Debbonaire also write: “It is deeply disappointing that it was the only backbench Private Members’ Bill to be effectively blocked from passage given six of the top eight Bills reached the statute book and another was withdrawn.”

'Ending the unscrupulous practices that blight the care sector cannot come soon enough'

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “It’s a national scandal that care workers continue to receive less than the minimum wage. Frontline workers are being exploited and ministers must make time to deal with this immediately.

“Ending the unscrupulous practices that blight the care sector cannot come soon enough. This includes not only action on low pay, but the use of zero-hours contracts and inadequate sick pay.

“Labour is right to highlight last year’s important legal victory for home care workers, backed by UNISON, which found they should be paid for travel time between care visits.

“The government also needs to be ambitious about desperately needed reform of the sector. Not just remedying the shocking pay and conditions but creating a world-class national care service of which we can all be proud.”