Help - Current Business Model No Longer Financially Viable

Hi,

Can anybody with experience of this advise me on the best cause of action in this circumstance.  My company is a care provider, one of their teams is currently operating at a loss because the funding that is coming in from the local authority isn't enough to cover the staffing costs and is no longer financially viable in its current state.  The company needs to change the way the staff are paid and contracted.  So instead of being on a permanent fixed hours contract they will need to be zero hours.  The work is still there, they are inundated but the company currently pay the staff an hourly rate and their travel is covered.  Because of the shortfall in the LA's funding they need to change the way the staff are paid and operate in order to continue.  My company will raise the hourly rate that is paid going forward to offset the loss in travel pay which will be an effect of moving onto a zero hours contract and they are quite confident that the staff will still get the same amount of hours to work because of the demand but it is a major change.

What would be the best approach/option in this kind of situation, they want to do the best they can for the staff in a very difficult situation but don't want to fall foul of any breach in employment law either?

Thank you for any thoughts anybody might have on this.

Gemma

Parents
  • Hi Gemma

    Would it be possible to look across the organisation for savings rather than simply at the team that works on that particular contract? After all, it wasn’t any of the care assistants that bid for a contract that didn’t cover employment costs. Would management be willing to take a percentage cut to their salaries rather than reducing the pay of one of the worst paid groups in British society?

    As an aside, I am aware that in some parts of the country care agencies are very dependent on migrant workers because rates of pay are so low. If this is true of your organisation, do you have a contingency plan in place in case, post Brexit, you can’t attract staff with such terrible terms?

Reply
  • Hi Gemma

    Would it be possible to look across the organisation for savings rather than simply at the team that works on that particular contract? After all, it wasn’t any of the care assistants that bid for a contract that didn’t cover employment costs. Would management be willing to take a percentage cut to their salaries rather than reducing the pay of one of the worst paid groups in British society?

    As an aside, I am aware that in some parts of the country care agencies are very dependent on migrant workers because rates of pay are so low. If this is true of your organisation, do you have a contingency plan in place in case, post Brexit, you can’t attract staff with such terrible terms?

Children
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