UNISON: Written Evidence RTS2377
UNISON written evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, preserving consultation-response arguments on retrospective change, public-service workers, social care, NRPF and lower-paid routes.
Summary
UNISON's written evidence to the Home Affairs Committee opposes the Earned Settlement proposals from the perspective of public-service and social-care workers.
It records strong member concern, including emergency online meetings and a parliamentary lobby involving more than 600 members, and criticises the consultation design as too narrow for proposals that could materially affect workers' lives.
The evidence argues that the proposals would apply retrospectively to people already in the UK, move many workers from a five-year route to ten years, leave some lower-paid public-service workers facing up to fifteen years, and introduce tougher family, contribution and public-funds conditions. It links those changes to labour-market exploitation, workforce retention, vulnerability, poverty exposure and the practical consequences for migrant workers delivering public services.
Why this matters for the archive
This source matters because it is a formal committee-published trade-union evidence record, not merely organisational commentary. It documents how a major public-service union understood the proposals' effect on existing workers, social care and lower-paid public-service roles, and it supports the archive's focus on retrospectivity, reliance, exploitation risk and workforce planning.