Precarious Contracts, No PPE or Sick Pay: Migrant Workers Share Reality of Working in Healthcare During Covid

Module 3 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry highlights that treatment of migrant healthcare workers is a direct result of decades of increased privatisation and outsourcing in the NHS. 

Counsel instructed by PILC have made the opening statements for the first day of the public hearings in Module 3 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. 

WATCH OPENING STATEMENTS HERE

Statements have beeen heard from the Frontline Migrant Health Workers’ Group (FMHWG). This group of workers is made up of Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), United Voices of the World (UVW), and Kanlungan Filipino Consortium.  

The module will focus on the impact of the pandemic on the UK healthcare systems. FMHWG’s members were all unprotected and disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Outsourced workers on precarious contracts and low pay undertook essential work as cleaners, porters, medical couriers, taxi drivers and security guards, but they often had no PPE, training or access to sick pay. 

Migrant workers, including NHS nurses frequently had inadequate PPE and were often unable to refuse unsafe work because of the threat of losing their leave to remain, or being destitute due to having no recourse to public funds conditions attached to their visas.  

The statements highlight the impact of outsourcing, privatisation and the hostile environment as direct causes of both the appalling treatment of these workers, and the inability of the NHS to protect patients and public health during the pandemic and beyond.

WATCH OPENING STATEMENTS HERE

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry will culminate in a Report with recommendations on how to improve healthcare and workers’ rights. It will highlight the impact on workers and privatisation of NHS, and will scrutinize the government’s actions during pandemic. You can find out more about PILC’s involvement in the inquiry here.  

Our written submissions summarise the key arguments that we will be making in the module.

The public hearings are taking place between 9 September 2024 and 28 November 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctafc_6BpA&t=20s