Salford Mayor becomes first council leader to sign Migrant Care Worker Charter

Salford Mayor Paul Dennett has become the first council leader to sign the Migrant Care Worker Charter, which aims to prevent migrant care workers becoming victims of modern slavery.

Unison members, migrant care workers themselves, campaigned for the creation of North West region’s Migrant Care Worker Charter.

UNISON president and Salford City branch secretary Steve North called on more council leaders in the region to sign up, and for central Government “to end this scandal.”

In 2020, the Government introduced the health and care worker visa to allow medical professionals to come to or stay in the UK to do an eligible job with the NHS, an NHS supplier or in adult social care.

But Unison said that one unintended consequence of the visa has been a surge in modern slavery, whereby migrant workers become victims of exploitation, including poor accommodation and bad employment practices – such as the illegal deduction of wages, high agency fees, employers not paying the minimum wage, trade union victimisation and inadequate health and safety.

NHS Employers, the employers’ organisation in England, has already sought to address some of these issues by creating the ethical recruiter list for NHS trusts seeking to hire overseas workers.

The union pointed to one example, where a group of Indian employees claimed they were not being paid for their full hours at a local homecare company, and that one had been dismissed for standing up to the company.

The branch recruited them into UNISON, won them compensation for owed earnings, got the individual’s job back and reached a recognition agreement with the company.