UK Tribunal Awards Indian Care Worker £30,000 After Sponsor Gave 0 Shifts for a Year
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 31
UK Tribunal Awards Indian Care Worker £30,000 After Sponsor Gave 0 Shifts for a Year
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 31
£28,843.54 in wages, holiday pay and other remedies was awarded to Shabin Shaji after a UK tribunal found Swan Care Solutions gave him no work for about a year despite sponsoring his visa.
The judge said Shaji was ready and legally able to work in Stafford, but the company withheld shifts and effectively treated him like a zero-hours worker even though he was not one.
£17,000 had already been paid to agents before Shaji moved from Kerala in 2023; tied to his sponsor under the visa system, he said he fell into destitution and was told to use a food bank or take cash-in-hand jobs.
A May hearing added £8,700 in costs against Swan Care, whose sponsorship licence was revoked in 2024; Shaji later found a new sponsor in April 2024 before returning to India in ill health.
Work Rights Centre called the case emblematic of thousands of migrant care workers allegedly recruited into Britain and then abandoned, renewing pressure to loosen visa rules that bind workers to one employer.
Can the UK's new visa rules truly protect migrant workers from predatory employers after thousands were left destitute?
Has the UK's 91% cut in care visas stopped exploitation, or has it only deepened the national care crisis?
Landmark 2024 Tribunal Ruling Exposes Widespread Exploitation of Migrant Care Workers in the UK: Systemic Failures, Policy Gaps, and the Urgent Need for Reform
Overview
This report highlights the landmark 2024 Employment Tribunal ruling in favor of Kirankumar Rathod, an Indian migrant who paid £22,000 to secure a care job in the UK, only to find no work provided by his sponsor, Clinica Private Healthcare Ltd. His ordeal, shared by many others, exposes how new visa routes introduced to address staffing shortages have led to widespread labor abuses in the care sector. The ruling not only brought relief to Rathod and his family, who faced severe financial hardship, but also set a crucial precedent for protecting migrant worker rights and challenging exploitative practices.