Live agents for the NHS test-and-trace operation who are being paid £9.50 an hour have been outsourced to Government vendor Serco at as much as £21.50 an hour.
The rate hike was charged by UK call centre firm Sensée for contact centre staff tasked with calling Britons who had tested positive for Covid-19, a source told The Guardian.
Neither Serco nor Sensée disputed the figures when approached for comment.
Tim Sharp, the TUC’s senior employment rights policy officer, said: “This rate looks excessive and seems to go beyond the already-inflated rates of commission commonplace in the industry.
“Instead of just cashing in on the hard work of agency workers, recruitment agencies should treat their workers fairly and pay them properly. Too many agency workers face unpredictable hours, limited rights and low pay.”
Serco’s earning on the test-and-trace system was capped at 4% on top of costs for its test-and-test work. But its suppliers were not under the same obligation.
The test-and-trace system has a £37bn budget over a two-year period. This works out as approximately £550 for each person in the UK.
But the Government and its private suppliers provided little detail on how the money has been spent.
The £1.3bn budget for contact tracing included contracts worth £720m for 2020-21.