13 December 2021 16.00-17.30 UK GMT – Financing Care: Labour Rights Amid New Models of Investment
As care needs rise, models of financial investment in the social care sector are proliferating, and care work, already a major source of employment, is seen as key to future jobs. However, poor pay and conditions are generating exploitation and labour shortages in many places. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the challenges facing care staff and services.
What are the prospects for protecting labour rights and improving working conditions? Research has shown that private equity firms and real estate investors have squeezed wages and employment conditions to increase financial returns from care companies. This session will explore these dynamics of financialisation. We will debate the strategies that care workers and their supporters are using to promote labour rights in this context. And we will consider experiments to finance care differently, informed by research on relational business models, wellbeing and social infrastructure.
Speakers: Kendra Strauss (Professor of Labour Studies, Director of the Morgan Centre for Labour Research and Associate Member, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University), Kevin Lucas (UNISON North West Regional Manager) and Colin Haslam (Professor of Accounting and Finance, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London).
Discussant: Kate Bayliss (Research Associate with the Department of Economics, SOAS).
Chair: Amy Horton (Lecturer in Economic Geography, University College London).