Home carer working for less than the minimum wage

harry_et

Hi All. I recently started working for a home care company. They gave the hourly rate when I went for interview as£8.30 per hour but it seems we are not paid for traveling time. With some rudimentary calculations it looks like I'm about £12 per day below the minimum wage. I'm only doing part time hours so that gap may be higher for full time staff.
Am happy to move to a different company that may pay better but don't feel I should let this company get away with underpayments to the other staff.
Would appreciate any help as to what I do next.

[Deleted User]

First you need to get a payslip out of them. Then you raise a grievance directly at the employer and take ACAS advice about what needs to happen.

You may not make yourself the best candidate to other employers as action can come at a price.

I don't say this to put you off, but you will need evidence. After my first week when a 50 hours upwardly week for a transport company in July of this year, indicated I was getting £7.50 an hour (so not even achieving minimum wage) I knew to very quickly walk away, the company have never paid any wages, never responded to a recorded letter from me asking why or registered me with HMRC. In the end the company could have said the week was a trial or how ever much a stretch that I was under 25 :cool: - and to be honest I think that was for the best.

I do remember in home care that one domacilary company may likely contact another before you even get to interview.

PasturesNew

harry_et wrote: »

Hi All. I recently started working for a home care company. They gave the hourly rate when I went for interview as£8.30 per hour but it seems we are not paid for traveling time. With some rudimentary calculations it looks like I'm about £12 per day below the minimum wage. I'm only doing part time hours so that gap may be higher for full time staff.
Am happy to move to a different company that may pay better but don't feel I should let this company get away with underpayments to the other staff.
Would appreciate any help as to what I do next.

You do need to take account "the whole picture".

For a worker, travel to/from work time is not part of their working week. So travelling to your first client is probably also of the same thinking... and travelling back from your last one. But, it might then, too, be a case of how your work day operates.

e.g. if you get paid to go to Client A for half an hour at 9am ... and to Client B for half an hour at 5pm, then that's a different calculation to a scenario where you work from 9am to 1pm going to Client a, then B, then C, then D, then E, then F.

harry_et

PasturesNew wrote: »

You do need to take account "the whole picture".

For a worker, travel to/from work time is not part of their working week. So travelling to your first client is probably also of the same thinking... and travelling back from your last one. But, it might then, too, be a case of how your work day operates.

e.g. if you get paid to go to Client A for half an hour at 9am ... and to Client B for half an hour at 5pm, then that's a different calculation to a scenario where you work from 9am to 1pm going to Client a, then B, then C, then D, then E, then F.

Yes I'm just counting the time traveling between clients so that's usually 10 to 15 mins each time. Most of my calls are 20 mins each

harry_et

Deleted%20User wrote: »

First you need to get a payslip out of them. Then you raise a grievance directly at the employer and take ACAS advice about what needs to happen.

You may not make yourself the best candidate to other employers as action can come at a price.

I don't say this to put you off, but you will need evidence. After my first week when a 50 hours upwardly week for a transport company in July of this year, indicated I was getting £7.50 an hour (so not even achieving minimum wage) I knew to very quickly walk away, the company have never paid any wages, never responded to a recorded letter from me asking why or registered me with HMRC. In the end the company could have said the week was a trial or how ever much a stretch that I was under 25 :cool: - and to be honest I think that was for the best.

I do remember in home care that one domacilary company may likely contact another before you even get to interview.

I get that I might not be popular but I'm in the fortunate position of not needing to work if I don't want to. I have chosen to work in this sector to do a rewarding job and I do love the work. I'm just do shocked that this highly rated and award winning company is actually exploiting their workers who probably dare not make a fuss as they've got mortgages to pay and children to feed.

agrinnall

harry_et wrote: »

I get that I might not be popular but I'm in the fortunate position of not needing to work if I don't want to.

In that case you are the ideal person to commence a test case on this. Maybe you could see if there is a union that you could join who would be willing to provide legal support.

harry_et

agrinnall wrote: »

In that case you are the ideal person to commence a test case on this. Maybe you could see if there is a union that you could join who would be willing to provide legal support.

It's my understanding that there have been a few test cases which have established that the time traveling or waiting between appointments should be paid time. Most avoid this but pay a higher rate to get away with paying the minimum wage.
Also my pay slip is simply a figure in £ 's. No hours mentioned or rates even though we have variable rates for weekend and weekday rates. I'm working it out on a spreadsheet and have proof of the hours I've worked. Will this be sufficient and who do I report it too?

Me2you

I hate this exploitation within this industry