Helping somebody whose employer is awful

FlorayG

Awkward situation here. My lodger is in the UK on a work visa, so has to be careful because of the risk of getting it rescinded but from what she tells me, the domicilary care company she works for is unreasonable and sometimes illegal.
I recently posted about her car accident - her manager called her a couple of hours after and asked if she was OK to attend her clients, while she was stranded and bruised and waiting for vehicle recovery. She gets given short weeks even though her contract (and the condition of her visa) says she will work 40 hours a week; some weeks she only works and gets paid for 30. She gets appointments that are e.g. 07:00 then 13:00 then 19:00 which is only 3 hours for her that day and doesn't let her get on and do anything else that day
Last night she worked a waking night shift that finished at 08:00, she still had to drive home and has a client at 19:00 tonight (so not 11 hours rest) and just now they woke her up calling to get her onto a conference call about one of the clients she cares for. They didn't pay her BH premium last BH
Lots of other things but SHE daren't do anything for fear of losing her visa. She says everybody she knows who works there is on a work visa, she doesn't know of any UK citizens working there. Is there anything I can do to help that won't cause her trouble? Or anything she can actually do?
She has been offered a job elsewhere but it's a long process to get all the paperwork done it's been 6-7 weeks since the job offer, so her current employer knows unofficially that she is planning to leave as they were asked for references. She says they've been trying to bully her ever since.

Undervalued

FlorayG said:

Awkward situation here. My lodger is in the UK on a work visa, so has to be careful because of the risk of getting it rescinded but from what she tells me, the domicilary care company she works for is unreasonable and sometimes illegal.
I recently posted about her car accident - her manager called her a couple of hours after and asked if she was OK to attend her clients, while she was stranded and bruised and waiting for vehicle recovery. She gets given short weeks even though her contract (and the condition of her visa) says she will work 40 hours a week; some weeks she only works and gets paid for 30. She gets appointments that are e.g. 07:00 then 13:00 then 19:00 which is only 3 hours for her that day and doesn't let her get on and do anything else that day
Last night she worked a waking night shift that finished at 08:00, she still had to drive home and has a client at 19:00 tonight (so not 11 hours rest) and just now they woke her up calling to get her onto a conference call about one of the clients she cares for. They didn't pay her BH premium last BH
Lots of other things but SHE daren't do anything for fear of losing her visa. She says everybody she knows who works there is on a work visa, she doesn't know of any UK citizens working there. Is there anything I can do to help that won't cause her trouble? Or anything she can actually do?
She has been offered a job elsewhere but it's a long process to get all the paperwork done it's been 6-7 weeks since the job offer, so her current employer knows unofficially that she is planning to leave as they were asked for references. She says they've been trying to bully her ever since.

Very emotive - but the manager clearly needed to know the answer to that question as he (and the company) have a duty to their clients!

If she is going to leave in six weeks time I would suggest she keeps careful notes of everything then, assuming she can identify clear breaches of her contract, possibly make a claim after she has left the employer.

She has 3 months in which to begin a tribunal claim (initially via ACAS) or up to six years (five in Scotland) to make a claim for unpaid wages in the small claims court.

DullGreyGuy

Whilst it sounds horrible working conditions nothing you have stated on the surface seems automatically "illegal" and there is probably good reasons why those with a right to remain in the UK dont want to do such work.

There is no automatic right to bank holiday premium, thats all down to the contract, mrs decided she wanted to do some part time work and the coffee shop she was working in stated on Xmas day is treated differently, all other days are normal working days on normal pay. 

Not an expert on work time regulations, I always opt out of them which she may have done too, but times between shifts etc are typically done on an average basis not individual occurrences. 

LinLui

Last night she worked a waking night shift that finished at 08:00, she still had to drive home and has a client at 19:00 tonight (so not 11 hours rest) and just now they woke her up calling to get her onto a conference call about one of the clients she cares for. 
She works variable shifts in care - there are different rules about the 11 hours rest. Where the needs of the service require less they can have shorter rest periods providing it is made up at another time. Given what you say about short weeks / days, then I suspect they are able to make this work within the law. 

Although it goes against the grain, she needs to be cautious. If she reports them for not providing 40 hours work (or if you do) then she could easily have her visa removed. She is as much responsible for the conditions as the employer is. Regardless of any recent changes that might have happened higher up, the people who make decisons about who gets to keep their visa and who doesn't are still the same people, with the same rule book, and the same attitudes. Plus, once they start looking into the employer the chances are that everyone else will also end up out of owrk / losing their visa. I think that unless she is actually "out of pocket" (i.e. they have refused to pay her for work she did, or failed to pay a contractual payment) then I would suggest that she moves on. Also remember that the employer has done a reference - they know where she is going. There would be nothing to stop them putting their oar in at the new job and then you could lose that job. Sometimes, you have to pick your battles, and I don't think this is one you should pick. Much as I hate these types of employers, they have a lot of power over peoples lives, and she may not be the only person who ends up paying the price of a report.

FlorayG

DullGreyGuy said:

There is no automatic right to bank holiday premium, thats all down to the contract, mrs decided she wanted to do some part time work and the coffee shop she was working in stated on Xmas day is treated differently, all other days are normal working days on normal pay. 

she got BH premium for Easter...it is in her contract

LinLui

FlorayG said:

DullGreyGuy said:

There is no automatic right to bank holiday premium, thats all down to the contract, mrs decided she wanted to do some part time work and the coffee shop she was working in stated on Xmas day is treated differently, all other days are normal working days on normal pay. 

she got BH premium for Easter...it is in her contract

If they have paid it previously then perhaps it was an error. Did she ask about it?

Marcon

FlorayG said:

Awkward situation here. My lodger is in the UK on a work visa, so has to be careful because of the risk of getting it rescinded but from what she tells me, the domicilary care company she works for is unreasonable and sometimes illegal.
I recently posted about her car accident - her manager called her a couple of hours after and asked if she was OK to attend her clients, while she was stranded and bruised and waiting for vehicle recovery. She gets given short weeks even though her contract (and the condition of her visa) says she will work 40 hours a week; some weeks she only works and gets paid for 30. She gets appointments that are e.g. 07:00 then 13:00 then 19:00 which is only 3 hours for her that day and doesn't let her get on and do anything else that day
Last night she worked a waking night shift that finished at 08:00, she still had to drive home and has a client at 19:00 tonight (so not 11 hours rest) and just now they woke her up calling to get her onto a conference call about one of the clients she cares for. They didn't pay her BH premium last BH
Lots of other things but SHE daren't do anything for fear of losing her visa. She says everybody she knows who works there is on a work visa, she doesn't know of any UK citizens working there. Is there anything I can do to help that won't cause her trouble? Or anything she can actually do?
She has been offered a job elsewhere but it's a long process to get all the paperwork done it's been 6-7 weeks since the job offer, so her current employer knows unofficially that she is planning to leave as they were asked for references. She says they've been trying to bully her ever since.

Her employer has a business to run, so why is that unreasonable? Had they not made contact with her, would you be posting about how uncaring they were, not even calling to see how she was?

She's leaving, they know she's leaving - so keeping her head down and just putting up with it for a bit longer, rather than risking losing her visa, is surely the realistic approach.

I think you're letting your emotions get in the way of sensible judgement. 

Grumpy_chap

FlorayG said:

Awkward situation here. My lodger is in the UK on a work visa, so has to be careful because of the risk of getting it rescinded but from what she tells me, the domicilary care company she works for is unreasonable and sometimes illegal.
I recently posted about her car accident - her manager called her a couple of hours after and asked if she was OK to attend her clients, while she was stranded and bruised and waiting for vehicle recovery. She gets given short weeks even though her contract (and the condition of her visa) says she will work 40 hours a week; some weeks she only works and gets paid for 30. She gets appointments that are e.g. 07:00 then 13:00 then 19:00 which is only 3 hours for her that day and doesn't let her get on and do anything else that day
Last night she worked a waking night shift that finished at 08:00, she still had to drive home and has a client at 19:00 tonight (so not 11 hours rest) and just now they woke her up calling to get her onto a conference call about one of the clients she cares for. They didn't pay her BH premium last BH
Lots of other things but SHE daren't do anything for fear of losing her visa. She says everybody she knows who works there is on a work visa, she doesn't know of any UK citizens working there. Is there anything I can do to help that won't cause her trouble? Or anything she can actually do?
She has been offered a job elsewhere but it's a long process to get all the paperwork done it's been 6-7 weeks since the job offer, so her current employer knows unofficially that she is planning to leave as they were asked for references. She says they've been trying to bully her ever since.

I understand your desire to be supportive, but I don't see how you can get involved here without risk of making things worse.  It is for the lodger to manage the issues around familiarity (or not) with local rules.  

Does the lodger have any element of understanding correctly if English is not their first language?
Take the car accident scenario.
The Manager has to ask about how the employee is - that is probably a combination of caring for the employee and also need to know so that the business can back-fill the individual's care shifts if required.  Any of us, if shaken up like that, may tend to see the worst in even a well-meaning contact.

LinLui

Marcon said:

FlorayG said:

Awkward situation here. My lodger is in the UK on a work visa, so has to be careful because of the risk of getting it rescinded but from what she tells me, the domicilary care company she works for is unreasonable and sometimes illegal.
I recently posted about her car accident - her manager called her a couple of hours after and asked if she was OK to attend her clients, while she was stranded and bruised and waiting for vehicle recovery. She gets given short weeks even though her contract (and the condition of her visa) says she will work 40 hours a week; some weeks she only works and gets paid for 30. She gets appointments that are e.g. 07:00 then 13:00 then 19:00 which is only 3 hours for her that day and doesn't let her get on and do anything else that day
Last night she worked a waking night shift that finished at 08:00, she still had to drive home and has a client at 19:00 tonight (so not 11 hours rest) and just now they woke her up calling to get her onto a conference call about one of the clients she cares for. They didn't pay her BH premium last BH
Lots of other things but SHE daren't do anything for fear of losing her visa. She says everybody she knows who works there is on a work visa, she doesn't know of any UK citizens working there. Is there anything I can do to help that won't cause her trouble? Or anything she can actually do?
She has been offered a job elsewhere but it's a long process to get all the paperwork done it's been 6-7 weeks since the job offer, so her current employer knows unofficially that she is planning to leave as they were asked for references. She says they've been trying to bully her ever since.

Her employer has a business to run, so why is that unreasonable? Had they not made contact with her, would you be posting about how uncaring they were, not even calling to see how she was?

She's leaving, they know she's leaving - so keeping her head down and just putting up with it for a bit longer, rather than risking losing her visa, is surely the realistic approach.

I think you're letting your emotions get in the way of sensible judgement. 

I disagree. I think it's wonderful that the OP cares about fair employment and decency in the workplace. That never gets old. But the OP hasn't thought through the possible consequences,  hence posting here. They are asking the question and seeking advice. 

Bearing in mind that we know that unscrupulous care sector employers are exploiting foreign workers,  sometimes not just illegally, but humanely, it's great to see someone cares. If more people did then it would be impossible to get away with some of the stuff that goes under the radar. We should all be watching...

Just one example of why..https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67684417