8. Working time
Migrant workers in social care, healthcare, and cleaning are often subject to poor working time practices, many of which are potentially unlawful under UK employment law. These include:
• Unpaid travel time between client visits – which can result in effective pay falling below the minimum wage and sponsorship salary thresholds( see Chapter 9)
• Shifts that exceed legal limits
• Insufficient rest breaks
• Zero-hours contracts with no shift guarantees
• Working full days but being paid for only part of them
• Lack of access to annual leave or knowledge of entitlements
These issues are widespread across domiciliary care, residential care, and agency work.
The legal framework
Working time is governed by the Working Time Regulations 1998( WTR) and the National Minimum Wage Act 1998( NMWA). These laws provide minimum rights to rest breaks, capped hours, and fair pay.
Key protections include:
• Rest breaks: At least 20 minutes for shifts over six hours( regulation 12, WTR)
• Daily rest: 11 consecutive hours between shifts( regulation 10, WTR)
• Weekly rest: At least 24 hours a week, or 48 hours over two consecutive weeks( regulation 11, WTR)
• Weekly working time limit: 48 hours per week averaged over 17 weeks, unless the worker opts out( regulation 4, WTR)
• Travel time: Mobile workers must be paid for time travelling between job assignments( ECJ ruling in CCOO v Deutsche Bank, 2019)
Annual leave
All workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year( pro-rata for part-time). This includes agency and zero-hours workers. Workers must not be discouraged from taking leave or misled about their entitlements. However rules apply if a worker needs to take unpaid leave for any reason which may affect their visa sponsorship. The rules around‘ Permitted absences’ are available in the government’ s guidance for sponsors( see box on next page).
42 LRD • Supporting migrant workers