Zero hours and domiciliary care workers

Jill RuberyManchester Business School

Zero hours as a cornerstone of independent domiciliary care providers’ (IDPs’) fragmented time employment practices

Dominance of zero hours • 69% of independent domiciliary care providers (IDPs) only offered

zero hours contracts to care staff ( 17% mixed- mainly for TUPE transferred staff or reward for ‘drivers’- only 13% any guaranteed for all)

Zero hours as cornerstone of fragmented time• No guaranteed hours , no continuous paid work periods

– staff bears loss of clients– unpaid breaks (88%)– Unpaid travel time (81% time not paid)

• Control over schedules– Volume of work depends on flexibility– Constant requests for cover (new cases/ absences)

Experience of workVolume of working hours • Most work relatively regular and often long hours- more about control

than major swings in work loads• But bear risks and costs of changes in client mix/ clients not requiring

care of prescribed length Length of working day versus paid work hours• Many start early- by 7am – finish late 10pm- with multiple breaks in-

between• 7 day and 6 day working is common• No or very short minimum work periods• Travel time unpaid especially under electronic monitoring• Even when on unpaid breaks under pressure to accept new work • If provide more care then specified results in unpaid time

Some care worker time schedules • I’ve been up every morning for, tomorrow morning will be my ninth morning

up at half five in the morning, so I’m wanting to go to bed on Saturday morning and not have an alarm clock waking me. (ON.Dom1. Care Worker 3)

• I work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I work half a day. Then Friday and ... Saturday, I work half a day on Sunday. [I start]7 o’clock. [I finish] 10pm. [Interviewer: Sometimes do you work all the way through?] Yes. Because I don’t drive, so most of the time is spent in the buses. (XD.Dom2. Care Worker 3)

• Well, I normally work Tuesday eight o’clock in a morning till twelve, then I have a break for about three hours, then I’m back out three till half ten. But the three till half ten I have an hour and a half break in between that as well. And that's Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday I start at half seven and finish at half ten. And Wednesday is eight till twelve o’clock. (IL.Dom1. Care Worker 1)

• Twelve days on and two days off. I do eight till two and the four till ten. (IL.Dom2.Care Worker 3)

Some care worker expereiences• It’s the time in between, because we spend time going to service

users. So you spend, I walk so I spend a lot of time walking to everyone, almost, like yesterday I finished at three and I started at eight, I think. I was out yesterday for six hours but I’m only getting paid for three hours of work. (RNDom2 Care Worker 4)

• I’ve been doing six and seven days a week with her, so I’m a bit like that. So when she goes[into a home] that’s twenty hours that I will lose, so you know, things slot in again, you know, it’s moving all the time, it changes. So it’s a bit … (RNDom2.Care Worker 2)

• I don’t make them flustered, I just take my time and do what I have got to do. Then it rolls into our time. (IL.Dom2 Senior Care Worker1)

Origins of fragmented time practices

Direct link to Local Authority commissioning• Only pays for direct face to face contact time ( reinforced when using

electronic monitoring)• Low margin over NMW reinforces lack of scope to pay for travel time ( higher

fee sometimes paid in rural areas rather than direct payment for travel time)• Often no continuity of payment even for clients on short-term respite/

hospitalisation• Commissioning in short task specific visits (often 15 minutes) – may not

reflect client’s needs• Shifting of risk from LA to providers- and then form providers to workers• Providers seem reluctant to respond to individual LAs improving

commissioning practices- either because may not last or because if national or local chain may not want to face pressure for general improvements in pay and conditions

Risk shifting: from LA to provider to care staff

• The council have told us that they’ve pretty much run out of money, which means almost no new care packages are putting through and every time a client needs an increase they’ll say no. Which means, for example, we have a client who is a double up one hour in a morning, she needs an hour and a quarter, it’s taking the carers an hour and a quarter because they can’t leave her without care but it’s making them run late, and they’re spending time there that they’re not being paid for, and they ask us, ‘Why are you not paying me for this time I have to spend with this client?’ And we don’t have an answer. We as a company, as a business, cannot pay them for that time but the council can’t agree it, and we can’t leave someone without care. (RN.Dom2,Care Coordinator)

• If it’s because somebody’s gone into hospital or respite or something like that, then the carer just has to deal with it. If it’s because the whole care package has ended then the coordinators will find other work to try and fill the gap. (Manager RN.Dom1)

Outcome is persistent staff shortages but lack of mechanisms to resolve problems

• Average staff turnover of 31% but also difficulty in retention of new recruits.• 69% short of staff for weekend and unsocial hours / 43% sometimes put up

with poor performance due to shortageDomiciliary care system surviving by:• Reliance on dedication of staff ( although insufficient numbers)• Tolerance of not being paid for all time worked• Unmet care needs• Individualised adjustment to schedules to help retain staff (but outcome is

that new staff have to provide flexibility and leave)Lack of long term solutions due to:• Care budget squeeze and lack of defined responsibility for employment

practices• Lack of client/consumer power• Tolerance of zero hours for regular staff under employment law.