Appendix II Migrant Workers’ Charter
Trafficking & Change of Workplace
Some migrant care workers have been instructed to move between different parts of the country to chase the promise of work, which may or may not materialise. Sometimes this will reach the threshold of human trafficking.
Signatory local authorities will:
10. Ensure contracted care providers do not apply pressure and demand workers move locations.
Insufficient or Excessive Hours
Some migrant care workers have been given insufficient hours by their sponsor and are, because of their visa, unable to easily work for another employer part-time or, if they do, can be threatened by their sponsor with dismissal and the loss of their visa status.
Signatory local authorities will:
11. Ensure that contracted care providers do not use contracts which outright prohibit secondary employment.
12. Work proactively with contracted care providers who do have sponsored workers but do not have sufficient care packages to provide hours by, as appropriate:
a. Supporting those providers in securing sufficient care packages to fully employ all their staff, especially those on sponsorship for whom insufficient hours can risk their visa status, and / or
b. Facilitating and supporting transfers of those workers to providers who do have sufficient contracts to provide full employment, meeting the terms of the workers’ certificates of sponsorship.
Right to Work checks
Employers are required to adhere to immigration law and conduct right-to-work checks. However, flawed understanding of employees’ right-to-work can lead to unnecessary suspensions, dismissals and, ultimately, risk the workers’ visa status.
Signatory local authorities will:
13. Ensure, in conjunction with point 4 of this charter, that contracted care providers do not conduct right-to-work checks in a way which is coercive, unnecessary or incorrect.
14. Provide basic guidance and signposting on common confusions around right to work including, for example, 3C leave protections.
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