Received from: Unison
Congress is alarmed at sweeping attacks on migrant workers which render them second-class citizens in the UK.
Health and care workers who came on a visa that promised them a five-year route to settlement are being told to wait 15 years. Other rule changes have stripped back family rights, work sponsorship rights and deleted so-called ‘medium skill’ roles but essential to delivering public services. These changes affect workers already here, punished for doing low-paid but essential work, especially in public services.
Rather than making low-paid workers more vulnerable to deportation and exploitation, the government should be raising pay in public services and reforming the visa system to reduce employer power.
Congress applauds the powerful campaign for visa reform led by migrant worker trade unionists. The fight for fair visas is indivisible from fair pay in the social care sector and better services for all. It demonstrates that when migrant workers organise, they fight for everyone.
Congress is therefore concerned that the Home Office does not recognise facility time as work for the purposes of visa rules. This fatally undermines trade union activity in workplaces which need it most.
Congress calls on the TUC and affiliates to campaign for:
i. a sector-wide visa scheme in social care, enabling workers to challenge bad employers without the threat of deportation
ii. no retrospective application of ILR rules
iii. retain the five-year route to settlement for workers
iv. strengthened access to facility time for migrant workers
v. a rights-based visa system for migrant workers.
UNISON