Labour to crackdown on employers who fail to pay care staff for travel time

22 December 2023 , 22:00

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Thousands of care staff are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis (Image: Getty Images)

Labour has pledged to crackdown on "unscrupulous" employers who fail to pay care workers for time spent travelling on the job.

It comes amid warnings thousands of care staff struggling with the cost-of-living crisis are missing out on hundreds of pounds each month. Under National Minimum Wage rules workers can be paid when they are travelling for job-related purposes - but Labour says this is not always the case.

A survey by the Unison union earlier this year of more than 300 care workers across England found three out of four care staff were not being paid for travelling between appointments.

As part of Labour's plans for a New Deal for social care workers, the party says it will work with HMRC to ensure the wage regulations are enforced. Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said: "Labour's New Deal for Care Workers will ensure thousands on the frontline in adult social care this Christmas are treated with dignity and respect."

She added: "Workers can spend hours a day travelling, not earning any money, forcing them to work longer and longer hours just to make ends meet.

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“Labour believes that everyone deserves a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, including workers who must travel between jobs. We’ll ensure regulations on travel time are actually enforced so any unscrupulous employers will no longer be able to get away with breaking the law and denying their workers their legal wage.”

The Labour MP Paula Barker has previously launched a private members' bill in the House of Commons seeking to ensure all carers are paid for travel time.

She told The Mirror earlier this year: The premise of the Bill is really simple - it’s merely to enforce existing legislation, and that’s quite shocking really. This is predominantly low-paid, women workers in the social care sector. As a result of not being paid travel time their pay falls below the minimum wage.”

According to the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures over 150,000 care workers and home carers worked on Christmas Day in 2020.

Ashley Cowburn