There's an interesting story in the Guardian today about an Oxfam report claiming that employment agencies are exploiting migrant care workers.
This includes having to work excessive hours, with no holiday or sick pay, and being on call for no extra pay.
The charity wants agencies in the care sector to be regulated by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which currently covers agencies supplying migrant workers to agriculture and related industries.
The GLA works to ensure workers' rights are protected by ensuring labour providers comply with minimum standard, including through inspections.
This is not the first time we have had calls for its role to be extended to the care sector - the Trades Union Congress did so last year in a report that said abuses were rife in the sector.
Temporary labour providers in social care do not have to register with the Care Quality Commission and fall under the remit of the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate and though its enforcement and inspection powers have been strengthened in recent years, this constitutes a less rigorous monitoring regime than that of the GLA.
Somehow I don't see it happening. The recession makes the case for increasing employment regulations harder than ever, while social care is already seen, by public bodies and providers alike, as a highly regulated area.
However, the problem of the conditions migrant workers find themselves in is not going to go away as the demographic changes of the coming years are likely to make us more not less dependent on their invaluable service to the social care sector.
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