Oxfordshire County UNISON have had a number of our migrant workers come to us for help and advice. Unfortunately we have found some of our skilled migrant workers are being exploited by their employers. The exploitation of migrant workers is a National problem, and in Oxfordshire this an issue that people are working very hard to stop.
We are all working together to support and ensure workers are protected.
If you feel your employer may have acted unreasonably/unlawfully during your employment, please contact the Oxfordshire County UNISON Branch by emailing unison@oxfordshire.gov.uk or calling 01865 815990. When emailing the Branch or leaving us a voicemail on our answer phone, please ensure to include your full name, UNISON membership number, workplace/employer details, and contact details.
Your Oxfordshire County UNISON Branch took a motion to UNISON’s 2024 National Delegates Conference with regard to the exploitation of migrant workers, please see below statement read at conference:
“We are a large, local government branch with members across a huge number of care providers in the Community, Voluntary and Private Sector.
This crisis amongst migrant care workers on sponsorship visas has been one of the most complex and distressing the branch has ever faced.
Our branch employed staff, who represent care workers, first noticed this issue in early 2023 when a steady steam of cases started coming into the branch from workers in the care sector on certificate of sponsorship visas.
It very quickly became clear to our experienced case workers that the treatment these members were being subjected to was unlike anything experienced before.
Awful reports started to come in from members who had their passports and documents retained by their employer, members working horrendous hours which clearly breaching Working Time Directive, abusive treatment from management and threats of cancellation of visas and enormous administration fees if they tried to leave employment.
The branch started to map the cases that were coming in as the staff supporting these members became increasingly upset and disturbed by what they were seeing.
Many members arrived in the UK to discover that there was no work available for them at all. The branch has had a number of cases where members have been promised a minimum of 39 hours work a week as required by their visa, only to find they are given just a handful of hours work, or in some cases none.
It quickly became clear that many of these members had been illegally charged enormous fees by ‘finder agents’ in their own countries, many had got themselves heavily into debt, convinced that they would be able to repay any loans with the promise of regulated seemingly well paid work in the UK which never materialised.
For our Branch Officers one of the most distressing things to discover was just how scared these members were. Many of them would not allow the union to make any contract with their employers due to the threat of deportation if a visa were cancelled.
None of these workers had the required 2 years’ service to legally challenge employers if they were dismissed and even if they had a legal claim, by the time any tribunal may have been heard, the member would have already faced deportation.
These members are not entitled to any support from the state, despite paying tax, they have no recourse to public funding and so when they find themselves in the country but with no work, they have no access to benefits to support them or their families.
The branch has had a slew of Welfare claims to try to help support these members and we have lost count of the number of members we have had to send to food banks.
The branch has really rallied around as a team to try and support these members and to make sure that awareness is raised about these issues at all levels of both the union and government.
The Branch began to whistleblow these issues to the local authority who commission a number of care packages from some of the rogue employers. To begin with this did not seem to change anything but eventually we were put in touch with the Modern-Day Slavery Co-ordinator. It became clear that whilst not all cases quite met the threshold for modern day slavery, in many cases pre-meditated exploitation was taking place in these employers.
From this meeting, regular cross partnership meetings started, UNISON now meet up regularly with CQC, the modern-day slavery co-ordinator and the local authority to discuss concerns and identify employers who are exploiting members. The local authority put a number of these employer on ‘red light’ alerts and in some cases stopped commissioning care packages. The Modern-Day Slavery Co-ordinator started reporting these employers to the Home Office and in the case of some of these employers, their license to sponsor visas was suspended or revoked.
Whilst these steps helped to deal with some of the worst employers it also had an impact on our members who once again found themselves at risk of deportation when their licenses are revoked.
UNISON also contacted the Gangmaster’s Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) to report these cases and eventually the GLAA started to attend the meetings too.
Oxfordshire County UNISON Branch strongly support this motion and I hope you all support this motion.”
UNISON’s Migrant Workers Network
Please consider joining UNISON’s Migrant Workers Network. This is a group of Migrant Workers who can share experiences with each other and who can work together to campaign to improve conditions for migrant workers in the UK. You can find out more by clicking on this link. UNISON Migrant Worker Network | UNISON National
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
UNISON provide free immigration telephone advice to members who have come to work in the UK from another country. We work with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) to provide this support. If you would like immigration advice and information, please call UNISON Direct on 08000 857 857. Your contact details will be passed on to an adviser from the JCWI, who will call you on a Tuesday, between 10am and 4pm. UNISON would highly recommend discussing any immigration concerns you may have with the JCWI.
There For You – UNISON Welfare
Members experiencing financial and emotional difficulties can contact UNISON Welfare, which provides confidential advice and support services for members and their dependants. Please see attached document ‘There for you Welfare fund’ for more information.
In our Oxfordshire County UNISON Branch we have a Welfare Officer, Claire Stanhope, who will be able to answer any welfare questions you may have. Please contact her by emailing Claire.stanhope@oxfordshire.gov.uk.