The Leading News & Information Service For The Facilities, Workplace & Built Environment Community

Mitie's Homecare Arm Accused of Minimum Wage Fudging

13 March 2015 | Updated 01 January 1970
 

MiHomecare, one of the UK's biggest providers of care to elderly and disabled people, is said to be paying workers less than the minimum wage, an internal company document leaked to Corporate Watch.

Owned by Mitie, MiHomecare is claimed also to be scheduling home visits with no travel time in between, meaning carers have to leave appointments early.

Mitie has countered this charge by stating that its workers receive at least the minimum wage for the care work that they do. However, legally carers should also be paid for the time it takes to get from one visit to the next. An internal analysis of pay rates shows that many MiHomecare workers are not being paid for travel time and as a result are earning less than the minimum wage, once this is included.

The leaked document, entitled MiHomecare – National Minimum Wage Review of Penarth Branch considers how to respond to an HMRC investigation into two of the company's Welsh branches. It gives a breakdown of unpaid travel time for 44 members of staff in the Penarth branch for the week starting 22 September 2014, and estimates they could be owed as much as £80,000 over three years. According to Mitie's latest annual report, MiHomecare has 6,000 employees working out of 57 branches.

The document does not comment on whether other MiHomecare branches include travel time in carers' pay but says that there is no system in place to check minimum wage rates are paid across the business: ‘[MiHomecare] does not have a common audit or assurance process for [National Minimum Wage] compliance.’

MiHomecare is the fourth biggest homecare services company in the UK, providing care for 10,000 people in England and Wales. Over 75% of the company's revenue comes from the public sector, with local councils paying for the majority of home visits. MiHomecare made an £8.2 million profit in 2014.

Picture: MiHomecare has been accused of not paying its workers the national minimum wage following a disclosure of a document supplied to Corporate Watch.  

Article written by Mike Gannon | Published 13 March 2015

Share


Related Tags


Related Articles

Union To Make April Fools Out Of OCS And Engie

Having just been awarded contracts with a total value of £1.1 billion, OCS and Engie will be disappointed to learn that strike action could be called before they...

 Read Full Article
Greater Enforcement Needed To Catch Minimum Wage Cheats

Stronger enforcement of the minimum wage is needed as underpayment is rising and fines for those underpaying are too low, according to new research by the Resolution...

 Read Full Article
National Living Wage To Rise Again In April

New Year's Eve saw the Low Pay Commission publish 2019 recommendations on the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) - which if accepted would see...

 Read Full Article
Strike Ends With London Living Wage Guaranteed

ISS staff working at BEIS have won what their union is now describing as the 'gold standard' in terms and conditions, including the London Living Wage, after...

 Read Full Article
Immoral Compass Finds Right Direction

A Compass Group company has agreed to the 'return' of working weeks 'stolen' from employees according to the workers' union Unite. ESS had put their...

 Read Full Article
Living Wage Laughed Out The Door - BEIS Strike Planned

Outsourced workers are set for indefinite strike action at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as their employers laugh at a Living Wage plan....

 Read Full Article
Living Wage Champions Recognised At Awards

The annual Living Wage Champion Awards have been delivered - including those from the cleaning sector. We've got the full list of the large and small organisations...

 Read Full Article
Settlement Scheme Success Says Secretary

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has confirmed that more than 750,000 applications have now been received for the EU Settlement Scheme. The EU Settlement Scheme is designed...

 Read Full Article
Poor Pay Packs Punch In England's East

441,950 East Of England residents in employment earned less than the real living wage of £9.00 per hour in the year to April 2018 a new GMB study has shown. The...

 Read Full Article
London Hospitals May See Sodexo Staff Strike

Tuesday April 30 saw three London hospitals hit by protests over pay involving porters, cleaners and domestic staff who work for Sodexo. The protests could escalate to...

 Read Full Article