Unison Calls for Visa Reform and Social Care Investment

Photo Credit Unison

UNISON general secretary Andrea Egan hosted her first event in the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 25 March alongside migrant worker members, calling for visa reform to prevent exploitation and proposing a sector-wide visa scheme to remove employers’ power to threaten deportation.

The event was attended by 36 MPs. Ms Egan championed UNISON’s calls to remove the retrospective application of a 15-year qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain, as well as to recognise the vital economic and social contribution of public service workers.

Ms Egan also urged MPs to invest in social care by proceeding with the Fair Pay Agreement as quickly as possible, while protecting the immigration status and workplace rights of existing international recruits and resolving salary threshold issues across public services.

Opening the event, Ms Egan pushed MPs to reverse proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain rules that UNISON says will negatively affect migrant workers across the UK. She warned that migrant workers were facing increasing exploitation under the current visa system. “Migrant workers are going through an extraordinarily horrendous attack. This cannot go on any longer,” she said.

“When I first heard the stories of abuse and exploitation facing those on visas, it shocked me to my core. These are conditions that I thought, in all my years in the trade union movement, were firmly in the past.”

Ms Egan explained that many migrant workers remain tied to problematic employers because of their visas, leaving them unable to leave even if they are underpaid or overworked. “If they speak out, they risk everything,” she said. “That is not justice. It’s exploitation by design.”

Addressing proposals to extend the time required to qualify for indefinite leave to remain, Ms Egan said the Labour government was “breaking the promise made to migrant workers before they came to this country”.

“We already have a struggling care sector, increasing waiting times across the NHS, and rising racism as the government feeds Reform rhetoric,” she said.

“This cannot be allowed to happen. Members won’t stop until this campaign is won, which is why we’re announcing a day of action on April 24.”

Addressing MPs directly, she added: “To those in power: we are not going away. we are not going away. We are organising, and we are growing.”

“Let’s be clear: there are 275,000 migrant workers in social care, and there are still over 100,000 vacancies. Removing these workers will only deepen the crisis.”