Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Care and Control: Are the National Minimum Wage Entitlements of Homecare Workers at Risk under the Care Act 2014?

Hayes, L.J.B. (2015) Care and Control: Are the National Minimum Wage Entitlements of Homecare Workers at Risk under the Care Act 2014? Industrial Law Journal, 44 (4). pp. 492-521. ISSN 0305-9332. (doi:10.1093/indlaw/dwv028) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:75154)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwv028

Abstract

Homecare is a major source of women’s low-wage employment in the UK. Practices of unpaid working time are widespread and many workers are not paid in accordance with their existing national minimum wage entitlements. On 1 April 2015, a new duty of well-being in social care came into force and local authorities are required to promote the control of care by service-users. As a consequence, homecare workers will increasingly be engaged in complex multi-lateral work relations and subject to multi-party control. This article examines how the national minimum wage entitlements of homecare workers have been legally interpreted and questions if their entitlements might be adversely affected under provisions of the Care Act 2014. There is a legacy of judicial decision-making in which care-giving is not recognised as ‘work’ for the purposes of the national minimum wage. Yet recent decisions have produced a more satisfactory entitlement framework by establishing that employer control over working time determines ‘work’. However, it seems this framework is put at risk by the statutory promotion of service-user control. As work relations are re-cast, contractual relationships in which care-giving falls outside the protection of national minimum wage law will appear increasingly attractive because they may both enhance service-user control and facilitate very low cost labour. Without innovation in legal treatments of multi-party control and sustained attention to the worth of care-giving as employment, the rights of homecare workers are at risk under the Care Act 2014.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/indlaw/dwv028
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Lydia Hayes
Date Deposited: 02 Jul 2019 14:19 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/75154 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.