Labour Conference supports Usdaw’s call for the promise on guaranteed hours contracts to be delivered in full

Addressing delegates in Liverpool, Joanne Thomas - Usdaw general secretary said: “The Employment Rights Bill being introduced to Parliament within the first 100 days of government was not just an incredible achievement; it was a line in the sand. A line between the despair brought by 14 years of Tory rule and the hope brought by this Labour Government. We drew that line together. Trade unions and the party that we created. And with it, we marked a new beginning for employment rights. New protections at work, a stronger voice at work and, crucially, more security at work.

“The members I represent, in retail and in distribution, are hardworking people. They serve their communities, their jobs matter and yet too often they are treated like they don't matter. From one week to the next, their hours can change at the whim of their employer. They can be working 10 or 20 hours over their contracted hours every week, but have those hours taken away without any notice. And those hours count for nothing when people are trying to get a mortgage or take out a loan. They can't plan their finances, their childcare or their lives. They are constantly worried about whether they will be able to pay their bills. That is no way to have to live. 

“The Employment Rights Bill will bring in the right to a contract that guarantees the number of hours you regularly work. We campaigned hard for this, and we are delighted that it is now to become law. But as always, the devil is in the detail, and the secondary legislation will decide exactly who benefits from this right. We have no doubt whatsoever about who it should be applied to, because it was written down in black and white in the Plan to Make Work Pay.

“Labour promised it would apply to everyone. We campaigned on that promise,
but now there is a risk of that promise being diluted. The right could be limited to only cover workers who are contracted to a low number of hours, meaning millions miss out and causing unintended consequences. Because if this right only covers a select group of workers, who do you think employers will offer the overtime to? They'll offer it to the people who aren't entitled to get it guaranteed in their contract - of course they will - and that means that the people on the lowest-hour contracts, the lowest- paid workers, more likely to be women, more likely to be disabled workers, more likely to be Black workers, will miss out on the hours that they need to live on. 

“This wouldn't only undermine the new right; it would actually make some of the most vulnerable workers worse off than they are now. This might sound complicated, but to the Government I say, the solution is a simple one. Just do what we said we would do. Provide guaranteed hours for everyone. Security for everyone. Fairness for everyone. I am proud that, in the face of anti-worker opposition from Reform, the Tories, the Lib Dems and bad bosses, this Labour Government has stood strong.

“It has stood behind the Plan to Make Work Pay and it has stood up for working people. Now we need a final push to make the plan a reality. This plan shows just what a Labour Government working with unions can achieve, but this plan does not belong to the Government. It does not belong to the unions. It belongs to each and every worker.”