Care Home Company ‘Engineered Losses To Get Rid Of Workers’

A care home business is at the centre of serious allegations of financial engineering at the expense of hundreds of its workers. Excelcare is owned by a Jersey-based firm and operates 37 care homes throughout England and Wales.

After taking control of 10 care homes from Essex County Council in 2005, Excelcare bosses divided them into separate legal companies. According to accounts filed at Companies House, the homes would have been operating profitably were it not for unspecified administrative expenses placed onto the balance sheet, which on average worked out at £470,000 per home.

Union officials allege that one year after Excelcare won its contract it announced that terms and conditions were to be slashed because of financial difficulties. Wages, say officials, were cut by as much as 40 per cent for senior carers and shifts were extended from 10 to 12 hours.
New staff were brought in on reduced wages but dozens refused to accept the terms and left.

Last week an Employment Tribunal ruled that Excelcare in fact owned all the homes and so had to answer a case brought by a single cleaner. But union officials say that the fate of hundreds of workers at the firm hang on this case.

Unison regional officer Michelle Bradley said: ‘Excelcare has treated staff abysmally. As far as employees knew they had moved from Essex County Council to Excelcare, but clearly Excelcare saw the opportunity to exploit the alleged “cash-strapped homes situation” to cut the terms and conditions of employment. In some cases [it was] placing staff who have worked in the care homes for years back onto the minimum wage and some have to claim benefits to compensate their slashed wages.’

Excelcare said it was ‘premature to comment in respect of the content of the appeal or the eventual outcome of what is a complex employment legislative disagreement that will need to be resolved through due legal process.

‘In the meantime, residents of all 10 homes involved, transferred from Essex County Council and registered as care home care companies, can be assured they will continue to receive high quality care, confirmed as above average by the registration authority responsible for inspecting standards of care.’