Carer Not Paid Travelling Time

martindow

My father's carer heroically walked here this morning and mentioned that she is only paid for working time plus a small mileage payment. In normal circumstances this is fine as it is a few minutes drive from call to call, but today she had just walked for 40 minutes from the previous call and reckoned that she would be out for about 6 hours with only 2 hours paid for top priority calls. Clearly she has to get from call to call to do the job, but in this weather she is being effectively paid at below minumum wage.

Any advice on how she should deal with this?

Debt_Free_Chick

She should speak to her manager in the first instance. I would expect her to get time off in lieu of any extra hours "worked" or "walked" if you see what I mean.

martindow

Manager apparently said that if she was not happy with the arrangements she could not come to work and be paid nothing. The care agency are presumably paid by the LA for hours worked in clients' houses so want to pay as little as possible. I feel they are taking advantage of kind employees who really do care for their clients - it seems outrageous to me.

churchrat

I don't think that any carers in this type of work get paid travel time and the agencies know that anyone who stays does so because they do not want (for what ever reason) to work elsewhere.

My ds girlfriend did this for a while in university holidays, and I know that others were either mums who found the hrs suited or people who could not get work elswhere.

I suppose we get what we pay for--if we are willing to pay more tax then we would get better pay for carers. I remember reading an article that asked people if they would be willing to pay more tax to pay for stuff like this and unsurpringly most said yes. Then come crunch time and most are not willing to pay more council tax or even get involved in local government.

martindow

I have phoned the minimum wage people who say that the hours from your arrival at the first call to leaving the last in each shift (less any breaks) are your working hours. If you add these hours up, over a week or a month according to how you are paid, and divide them into your pay your hourly rate must be at or above the minimum wage. Whatever method the employer uses to calculate pay cannot override this.

If the snow lasts here this will be relevant to may father's carer.

rev229

My friend is a carer and has been walking to the next village for the past 2 days. If she doesn't go to work she doesn't get paid!

cazziebo

churchrat wrote: »

I suppose we get what we pay for--if we are willing to pay more tax then we would get better pay for carers. I remember reading an article that asked people if they would be willing to pay more tax to pay for stuff like this and unsurpringly most said yes. Then come crunch time and most are not willing to pay more council tax or even get involved in local government.

Sadly, this is so true. We really don't recognise the true value of care work.

The companies are only paid per care hour, they do not get any kind of payment that recognises travelling time. Every year the councils squeeze how much they pay per hour of care, and this in turn affects how much the carer is paid.

I'm not sure how this gets round the NMW, but most (non council) carers are on zero hours contracts and are only paid for when they are working. The mileage allowance (and not all carers get this) only covers the cost of running their own vehicle - it doesn't compensate for time.

It is outrageous, and yes, it is exploiting the dedication of individuals who are committed to improving people's lives Not sure what your carer can do, unfortunately this is a standard working condition in the care industry.

(Computershack - carers are not usually agency workers - they work for private care companies or (in ever fewer cases) are employees of local councils. The employment status is not casual, it's permanent. There is a bit of undercutting that goes on to win the council contracts, but the biggest influencer is the policy decisions on the Social Work budget. I don't know many rich owners of care companies, it's not a lucrative business.)

doodlesmum

Hi,
I am a community care work and my contract is a Zero hours one so if you dont work you dont get paid so Cazziebo is correct unless you are signed off then you get sick pay it is generally the same pretty much all round in the care industry.
I do my job because i love it and this is the case in most cases i think your carer is one of these that shows true dedication to walk to work and it is really nice to read that you appreciate this

Doodlesmum

jasmine_lotus_flower

I worked for an agency doing this kind of work, a while back and was paid for the hours i worked, not the travel time.This is normal.

jaffacakes82

I think her Employers are right. Although it seems unfair, it's only a temporary measure until the snow lets ups. She could stay at home and not get paid if she prefers. Lots of people are currently spending 3+ hours getting to work at the moment, they're not paid, just doing what is necessary at the moment.

martindow

jaffacakes82 wrote: »

Lots of people are currently spending 3+ hours getting to work at the moment, they're not paid, just doing what is necessary at the moment.

But she is doing that as well, as she is not expecting payment for going from home to her first client and returning from the last client. If I trudged into work in an office or factory was was then asked to go to other buildings during my working day I would expect to be paid for the whole working day.

Ultimately being an inconsiderate employer backfires as the money saved with penny pinching is outweighed by the loss of goodwill and high staff turnover.