RCN Research Reveals Exploitation of Migrant Nursing Staff
New information for the RCN shows that businesses are leaving social care professionals at the mercy of their immigration status
Some companies are exploiting the fragile visa status of migrant nursing staff in social care, an RCN research has revealed. It comes a week after Prime Minister Andy Burnham outlined proposals for a National Care Service and paid tribute to migrant workers who cared for his father.
Internationally Educated Nurses and the UK Social Care Sector
Internationally educated nurses are an important part of the social care sector. Social care policy is devolved but immigration regulations apply across the UK. “We are calling on the UK government to change its immigration rules to help stabilise the sector in all four nations. This means abolishing employer control over visa sponsorship and the ability to use immigration status as leverage.
The report examined roughly 400 examples of health and care personnel in adult social care who sought RCN support as victims of exploitation and extortion between 2023 and 2025. This is probably just a tiny fraction of the numbers risking exploitation, given low levels of union membership among migrant workers and widespread fear of speaking out.
Most of the people the RCN supports in these circumstances are registered nurses, with the rest being nursing professionals, including nursing support workers.
Visa Sponsorship and Migrant Worker Exploitation
Some companies used employes’ uncertain immigration status as leverage to demand hefty repayments, underpay them, re-write contracts to alter their pay and working conditions and ignore risky substandard working practices.
We believe the problem is a massive “power imbalance” in the visa system, which connects overseas nursing staff’s capacity to live and work in the UK to their company. This has allowed some businesses to disregard concerns or exploit staff, frequently with the danger of their visa sponsorship being withdrawn and potential deportation.
RCN Calls for Action on Visa Sponsorship
RCN Chief Executive and General Secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said: “This report reveals the extent of grotesque exploitation happening in the sector. A National Care Service to fulfil the demands of an ageing population with complicated diseases will need to be directed by registered nurses. We have the competence and experience to make it work but that cannot happen when so many of our migrant colleagues are being exploited.
“Visa sponsorship is one of the key causes, leading to a hazardous power imbalance where some unscrupulous companies use withdrawal of sponsorship as a tool to extort money, change contracts, lower wages or bully and harass with impunity. It’s a scary scenario which gives all the power to individual employers. It has no role in a National Care Service.”
Significant Findings in the RCN Report
Some of the significant results in our report are:
More than half of all cases of those seeking support from the RCN concerned payback clauses being used by employers to collect fees from staff intending to leave employment before the end of their contract. Most of these claims were from companies above the maximum £3,000 advised by NHS companies, with one as high as £25,000.
One in five of the instances reviewed revealed wage problems. The most common complaint was that they were paid less than their agreed contract hourly salary.
More than half of those surveyed reported seeing widespread subpar behaviours in the workplace, with a third of those cases constituting serious bullying and harassment, including incidences of racial discrimination.
RCN Recommendations for Migrant Nursing Staff
Our report advocates for enhanced protections, effective enforcement and systemic reform to secure migrant nursing staff and boost standards in the industry, including:
permits handled by an industry body or umbrella organization to facilitate easier movement of staff between businesses without the possibility of deportation
to embed the new Fair Work Agency in the sector so it can properly monitor employment practices, go after unscrupulous employers and deliver on the promised investigation by government into the sector an extension to the time staff have to find a new employer from 60 to 180 days, to eliminate the risk of deportation when needing to move jobs.
Calls for Greater Protection for Migrant Workers
Migrant workers are often intimidated and afraid to speak up. “The prime minister has spoken so movingly about the contribution of migrant nursing staff, now they need his full backing.” Nicola added.
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