Work Rights Centre wants UK govt to abolish sponsorship system: Give more time to change sponsors

LONDON Nov 16: A new report published this week by the Work Rights Centre (WoRC) presents migrant workers’ views on improving conditions in England’s adult social care sector. Work Rights Centre is a registered charity dedicated to supporting migrants and disadvantaged British residents to access employment justice and improve their social mobility.

Work Rights Centre’s Recommendations

To help raise employment standards for migrant care workers and improve the sustainability of the adult social care sector as a whole, Work Rights Centre recommend that the UK government pursues two major strands of reform:

Sectoral reform, which should start by including migrants’ voices in the planned Negotiating Body responsible for the Fair Pay Agreement. Work Rights Centre are also calling on the government to tackle key issues around pay, training, career progression frameworks, and regular hours of work. With their pay eaten away by driving between appointments, unpaid overtime, and a lack of sick pay for short illnesses, these historic injustices must be fixed.

Immigration system reform, which is urgently needed to address the power imbalance between employers and migrant visa workers. Despite suffering persistent abuses of their rights, many sponsored workers we heard from felt unable to report their employer out of fear of retaliation. They must be empowered to report non-compliance, leave exploitative roles, and take their labour to businesses that need and value them. An end to the sponsorship system would be the most effective way to achieve this, but at a minimum, the Home Office should give visa workers more time to change sponsors, and ensure that those who suffered exploitation are given the unrestricted right to work to prevent re-exploitation and destitution.

Abolition of sponsorship

The government has promised the creation of a Fair Work Agency that will beef up enforcement powers around modern slavery and the national minimum wage although as currently envisaged it does not cover immigration rules.

The Work Rights Centre recommended urgent reform of the immigration system to “address the power imbalance” between employers and migrant visa workers.

Abolition of the sponsorship system was the most effective way to achieve this, the report authors stated, “but at a minimum, the Home Office should give visa workers more time to change sponsors, and ensure that those who suffered exploitation are given the unrestricted right to work to prevent re-exploitation and destitution.”

Imbalance of power

According to Ashley Stothard, immigration executive at national law firm Freeths, the report was deeply troubling.

She said the fact that care providers guilty of unfair treatment continued to hold licences to sponsor migrant workers, “raised significant ethical and regulatory concerns”.

Stothard said: “From a legal perspective, this situation underscores a critical need for stricter enforcement of labour laws and more rigorous oversight of sponsor licences. Migrant workers are tied to their employers with restrictive visa restrictions, often making it difficult for them to change jobs.

“The imbalance of power in favour of the employer means migrant workers can be exploited without little fear of repercussions.”

She added that now care workers were banned from bringing family members to the UK, they faced further isolation and a lack of support. The exploitation of migrant workers risked undermining the integrity of the UK’s immigration system.

Only the revoking of licences and tougher regulation could remedy matters. She said: “The demand for care staff should never justify the mistreatment of employees, and it is the government’s duty to hold these care providers accountable.”

Key findings

Drawing on 21 interviews and 71 survey responses with migrant care workers, Work Rights Centre find that migrant care workers are facing acute pressures:

Unsustainable working hours. More than half (55%) of survey respondents were dissatisfied with their work schedules. Interviewees revealed a toxic dynamic whereby working hours were either all-consuming, with little time for family and self-care, or low and unpredictable, with barely enough hours to cover living costs.

Low levels of pay. Three quarters (75%) of survey respondents were unhappy or very unhappy with levels of pay, and almost half (45%) of those who needed to drive between appointments were unpaid for travel time. Interviewees reported experiencing a demoralising cycle of financial insecurity, which failed to represent the complexity and social value of their work, and made it difficult to imagine staying in the sector long-term.

Persistent breaches of employment rights. Nearly two thirds (65%) of survey respondents disclosed an alleged employment rights breach in the last 12 months, including health and safety breaches, bullying, and discrimination. More than a third (39%) of these respondents did not raise a complaint with their employer or make a report to an external agency, and interviewees reported that social pressure, mistrust of authorities, and fear of employer retaliation left them disempowered to raise grievances.

A punitive visa regime. Research participants on the Health and Care Worker visa were particularly at risk. Interviewees feared that reporting their employers to authorities risked having their visa curtailed, and several carers described instances where employers used the threat of visa curtailment to silence grievances. Switching out of exploitative work situations was also problematic. While many workers (38) had tried to find a new sponsor, fewer than half (16) were successful.