Seventeen support workers from the London Borough of Haringey have, with the support of their union Unison, launched a court case against several care agencies and Haringey Labour Council. The workers, mainly black women, were previously employed by the agency Sevacre but are now employed by smaller agencies who took over the council contract. They are employed on zero-hours contracts and complain that their travel time between visits goes unpaid, and that the block wage they are paid for 24-hour ‘live-in’ support in their clients’ homes works out at just £3.72 per hour spent in work – less than half the minimum wage.
Across the British care sector 82% of the workforce are women. Low pay across care services has long been justified by the idea that the joy of providing care is a reward in itself, and compensates for pitifully low wages. This is seen in recruitment adverts with the question ‘Do you care?’ Beyond the obvious sexism of such a theory, it goes completely against facts, which tell us that of those who leave care jobs, 56% do not get recruited into other care roles.
There is a disproportionately high percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic workers across the care workforce in Britain – 64% in Greater London. The nationalities of the workers in the sector changes year on year, mirroring patterns of migration to Britain, and rates of poverty along ethnic lines. Statistics on care workers are collected solely through employers and under-represent the significant proportion of disabled people in the workforce. Care workers are predominantly drawn from the most oppressed sections of the working class. They accept appallingly low pay not because they are naturally kind, caring women, but because they cannot find other forms of work, and will gladly leave when they can for higher paid, less physically and emotionally demanding work.
The Haringey workers’ action is a rare form of resistance to low pay and poor conditions. While the court case, if successful, will be a blow against exploitative employers, there is much more to be done in beginning a real struggle for decent pay and conditions. This will require the collective action of care workers across the sector, and new forms of struggle and organisation.
Many of the statistics in this article are from Skills for Care’s 2014/15 report
(available online and in print from www.skillsforcare.org.uk)
Luke Meehan
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 253 October/November 2016
