RCN calls for urgent action to tackle workforce exploitation in social care

By Alan Jones, Reporter17th October 2024News EnglandImmigration, News England, Nursing / Midwifery, Pay and Conditions, Recruitment / Retention, Social Care, Top Stories, Workforce

Nursing leaders are urging the Government to speed up the establishment of an agency to enforce labour standards.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said any delay to the creation of the Fair Work Agency would worsen the exploitation of migrant nursing staff in social care.

General secretary Professor Nicola Ranger (pictured) urged the Government to renew a commitment to an investigation of exploitation after the RCN blew the whistle on the issue.

Prof Ranger will tell an RCN conference on Thursday: “For years, rogue social care employers and recruitment agencies have exploited migrant care workers with almost total impunity.

“They have shackled people with eye-watering debt, confiscated passports and threatened deportation. It is heart-breaking and unacceptable.

“The Government is right to establish a new agency to tackle this scourge, but our migrant colleagues cannot wait years for the wheels of legislation to turn and for the problem to go unchallenged. Ministers must launch their promised urgent investigation without delay.”

Professor Ranger said RCN members had rejected the Government’s pay deal because they wanted to stand up for a strong NHS, adding: “My message to ministers was that we should work together constructively to find answers to the low pay crisis and poor staffing levels.

“Nurses do not want to go into next year with this hanging over them – patients and the nursing profession deserve better than they’ve had and ministers should take the chance to put things on a better path.”