Below is the story of one of our members. This accompanied the letter we sent to MPs in September 2024. Other stories were written by Anonymous E, Kate, Anonymous A, KR and Rachel. You can download all of our stories here.
I have worked in care for around five years now and in that time I have seen hundreds of fantastic carers leave the profession to work in factories, shops and warehouses, for more money and less stress. I am just one of 625,000 domiciliary care workers in England. My story will be different to every other care worker, but I can guarantee that there will be common elements to all our stories. This is mine…
My journey into homecare began when I was made redundant from an office-based role in 2018. Whilst I loved the work, I began to understand that my employer was not interested in their staff, nor their very vulnerable clients, but in increasing their profits - which they did no matter the cost! These are some of the many issues I encountered whilst there:
There were times when I had to stay at client’s longer than the designated time, such as if a client had had a fall, or had had a toilet accident which meant they and lots of other areas needed cleaning. There were times I would be at a call for an hour or more. I was paid for the half hour call and nothing more every time this happened. This would have taken me way below the minimum wage.
There were times I had to attend training, meetings etc with management. These were never paid
I contracted COVID-19 from a client at the start of the pandemic. I had to self-isolate for ten days. In that time, I got no pay whatsoever and had to rely on my parents to buy my groceries!
Incidentally, I don’t know of a single care company that offers sick pay. This forces staff to work when they are ill, threatening not only their health but also the health of vulnerable and elderly clients. I know of people that have worked whilst poorly with Covid simply because they can’t afford not to.
Senior carers, one of which I became for a short time, were expected to do a full week of work, plus have the on-call phone. I had a situation where I was doing my shift and, in the middle of helping a client, the on-call phone rang. A carer’s car had broken down and she would not be able to do her morning shifts for the next few days. I spent the rest of my shift trying to get cover for her calls as well as attending to numerous clients of my own. Alas, I could not find anyone to cover her shifts. This meant that I was expected to do my evening shift until 10.45pm, drive 40 minutes home, then get up to start her shift at 6.30am the next morning and, as it turned out, for the whole week! This was as well as doing my evening shift all week.
We never received payslips. We were told the only way to get them was to travel to the office which was a good 45 minute drive away, or provide management with stamps for them to be sent to us. It was this issue with payslips that was my undoing. I suspected that the company were underpaying us and that this was the real reason for making it so difficult to get hold of our payslips.
I joined a union and I took them to task. I said we really should get payslips automatically. That September I went on holiday. Whilst away, I received an email from the Managing Director to say they would not be giving me anymore hours. The stress this caused me was immense. I took them to a tribunal with the help of a solicitor paid for by my union.
Getting my union to help me was painfully difficult and incredibly stressful. My employer argued that as a zero-hours worker, they did not have to give me any hours and I would not be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal. I spent months collecting and emailing evidence to them to prove that I was an employee that had been regularly given 40 hours of work per week for three years.
In the end, I think my sheer persistence and the fact that I was prepared to take them to a tribunal with or without their help, meant they eventually conceded defeat and agreed to fund a solicitor to help me. My solicitor was incredible and days before the date of the tribunal my old boss paid up. Most people would have given up, but after everything I had given that company I was utterly determined!
I worked for a short time for another homecare employer. They appeared to be a reputable company, and even provided us with work phones. It was just an illusion. My experience there was not good. We never got a rota. It was called a ‘live system’, which meant our rotas changed as we were working with no notification whatsoever! Once I was with a lady. I had a half an hour gap after her call. I thought I would spend that half an hour with her. We had a coffee together and a lovely chat. I got back in my car, put my notes into my work phone and pressed save, only to find they had added a call in that half hour gap that I was now already half hour late for! Another time, my first call of the day was scheduled for 7.20 am, so I set my alarm for 6.30am. On waking up I discovered they had added a call in at 6.30am overnight whilst I was sleeping.
Another bugbear of mine is that we work until 10pm or later and then are expected to be at a visit at 6.30am the following morning. Isn’t the legal minimum hours between shifts 11 hours?!
I am now employed by a third homecare agency and am coming up to my three-year anniversary.
There is, undoubtedly, so much wrong with the care sector, and one of those wrongs is the conditions we care workers have to work in. I am convinced that those lousy conditions are because carers are predominantly women, but this is 2024 not 1924 and women need security, we need decent wages, sick pay, a guaranteed income that will always cover the mortgage, and a ban on zero-hour contracts that aren’t really zero-hours at all, because let’s face it a true zero-hours contract would be flexible for both parties. We should be able to turn down work just as the company is not obliged to give us work! That simply isn’t the case. If I got my rota for the week and I said actually I’m not going to do that I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t last long.
At my current employer we are told our hourly rate is £14 per hour. This is as deceptive as it is plain wrong! If you take into account everything we are not paid for, it is doubtful we are even earning the minimum wage. These are the things that are either unpaid or paid out of our own pockets:
Car business insurance (we pay)
Car maintenance (the short journeys and constant stopping and starting wreck our vehicles)
Travel time between clients (not paid)
Gaps between calls (if someone goes into hospital suddenly they come off our rota and we don’t get paid, although the company do)
Mobile data. Many of us have had to switch to more expensive packages as our phones have our rotas on them and are used constantly in our roles.
Petrol. I am paid 30p per mile, but mileage between calls is calculated as the crow flies
Training, team meetings, support sessions, reviews. None of these are paid and online training is done in our own time, in my case, usually on my day off.
Collections of medication logs and PPE from the office, done every month. Also unpaid.
If someone has a fall or an accident whilst you are there or prior to your arrival, you would need to write out an accident report (done in your own time and unpaid)
As you can see, all this unpaid work time and expenses brings our pay right down, almost certainly to below the minimum wage.
And so, this is my story. Apologies it’s so long, but there was a lot to cover. I thank you for taking the time to read through this. I really do hope change is coming, because if it doesn’t, I will be just another number that was forced to leave a job they loved.
Many thanks
Julie Sansom
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