Ministers urged to press ahead with ban on zero-hours contracts | Zero-hours contracts
Campaigners say ministers should continue to ban zero-hour contracts, despite claims from business leaders that it would deter more young people from taking up employment and push them out of the labor market.
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the union’s umbrella organization the TUC were among eight signatories to the letter to the department of business and trade, which called on the government to “ignore the noise” from businesses calling for zero-hour contracts to continue.
Last year, the Employment Rights Bill received royal assent, but most of the detailed provisions were left blank, allowing ministers to introduce them in stages.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle oversaw the delay in launching a planned consultation on zero-hours contracts, which was due to start in January. It is understood the ministry will seek applications before the end of the summer before introducing the new rules next year.
Business leaders worry that if the new rules are adopted, delays in the consultation process will not give them time to adjust workplace practices.
In the absence of a formal consultation process, the British Retail Consortium and UK Hospitality, the lobby group for restaurants and hotels, wrote to Kyle saying reduced flexibility in employment contracts would lead to fewer jobs.
A new report by the Institute of Directors has shown that 86% of business leaders believe the Employment Rights Act will have a negative impact on the UK’s economic growth; This rate was 72% compared to the previous year.
On Tuesday Lord Wolfson, chairman of retailer Next, said that while most sectors were in favor of abolishing zero-hours contracts, the new rules would be costly for retailers “because the risk is that you will have to contract for those hours forever”.
More than a million people in the UK work on a zero-hours contract, in areas from hospitality and warehouses to the NHS. The TUC says hundreds of thousands of people have worked for the same employer for years.
Former health minister Alan Milburn’s report on Thursday is expected to put further pressure on Kyle to show that new employment laws will support job creation, accusing the government of failing to meet the education and training needs of unemployed young people.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said many workers did not know how much they would earn each week and “the lack of safety during working hours makes it difficult for workers to plan their lives, plan their budgets and look after their children”. When employers can reduce working hours to zero, many people cannot get mortgages and other types of cheap loans.
Novak added that precarious work “also makes it difficult for workers to challenge bosses’ unacceptable behavior due to concerns about whether they will be penalized in the future for not being allocated working hours.”
CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: “Working parents often don’t have enough to make ends meet – their hours are suddenly cut or they pay for childcare but their shifts are cancelled.
“These new rights could be an important tool in tackling child poverty by giving parents the safe working hours and shift notices they need. As part of its moral mission to reduce child poverty, now is the time for the government to fully and effectively implement these rights.”
The TUC said the right to a regular working hours contract would not affect holiday work because it was “determined based on a reference period that would equalize the ups and downs over a number of months”.
Other signatories to the letter include women’s rights group Fawcett Society, employment think tank Work Foundation and campaigning organizations 38 Degrees and Young Women’s Trust.
Comment was sought from the business department.
