"The effect is distressing"

I discovered to my disgust and horror the following terms and conditions of employment by the company which I am told have arisen because of changes imposed by the council.

Staff only get paid for the actual time they spend with each client.

They do not receive any allowance for travel time between clients.

They do not receive any allowance for fuel used travelling between clients.

They are only issued with one uniform and have to purchase more uniforms if they need them

As a result, this means that the staff may start work at 7am and complete their work at 1pm - a total of six hours at work, but get paid only (for example) half an hour for each of six clients and therefore get paid for only 3 hours!

Should the client not require the full amount of allocated time for some reason, say allocated time 30 minutes but only 10 minutes required that particular visit, then the Agency will only be paid for the 10 minutes and the carer will only get paid the 10 minutes!

Whilst I can see the reason for this (cost savings) I think it is an appalling way to treat staff and already at least two of our carers have resigned.

I think that staff are already on a relatively low hourly rate, and have fixed outgoings but finding their income fluctuating wildly from week to week so they cannot afford to work in this way.  This means the turnover of staff is very high and the effect on my husband and I is distressing.

How can companies recruit and retain staff to provide care to vulnerable and dependant clients when faced with these terms and conditions?

We are very happy with our Agency and their staff but are genuinely concerned for the carers involved who work with these companies.

I would be interested to receive your comments and would be happy to provide a copy of my email to the Agency and to their prompt response to me.