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RCN calls for urgent investigation into social care exploitation

THE government must speed up the establishment of an agency to enforce labour standards, nursing leaders urged today.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said any delay to the creation of the Fair Work Agency would worsen exploitation of migrant nursing staff in social care.

General secretary Professor Nicola Ranger urged the government to renew its commitment to investigating exploitation after RCN research uncovered the extent of the issue.

Prof Ranger told an RCN conference: “For years, rogue social care employers and recruitment agencies have exploited migrant care workers with almost total impunity.

“They have shackled people with eye-watering debt, confiscated passports and threatened deportation. It is heartbreaking and unacceptable.

“The government is right to establish a new agency to tackle this scourge, but our migrant colleagues cannot wait years for the wheels of legislation to turn and for the problem to go unchallenged.

“Ministers must launch their promised urgent investigation without delay.”

Professor Ranger also said RCN members had rejected the government’s pay deal because they wanted to stand up for a strong NHS, adding that patients and nurses “deserve better than they’ve had and ministers should take the chance to put things on a better path.”

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