Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment said: “Labour will end one-sided flexibility and ensure all jobs provide a baseline level of security and predictability, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and ensuring everyone has the right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a twelve-week reference period.”
The Government has stated in its consultation that its preference is to restrict the right to workers who are contracted to a number of hours somewhere between eight and 20 per week. According to Labour Force Survey data, there are 2.6 million workers on zero- and short-hours contracts. While Labour’s manifesto promised to support all of these workers, the Government’s consultation proposal would leave large numbers of workers without financial security.
Addressing the select committee about the Government’s intention to restrict the right to workers on 20 hours or less, Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary said: “We would end up in a situation where you bring in an Employment Rights Act that could actually leave workers worse off. It would be catastrophic and would actually go against the whole spirit of the Employment Rights Act. What the legislation was intended to do was to improve working conditions and the opportunity for workers to get access to financial security, that they’ve needed for so long.”
Asked about whether there could be a compromise on the hours threshold, Joanne Thomas responded: “We absolutely can’t, if it is going to exclude groups of workers and actually make those workers financially worse off. Suffering huge detriments and having a disproportionate impact on women and disabled workers. Everybody that wants one should have a contract that reflects the hours that they work. Not everybody wants one, but they should at least have the opportunity to access one, to access that better standard of living and to be able to operate their life with some element of fairness, which they currently can’t. This is impacting millions of workers.”
Hypothetical illustration of the impact of excluding workers from the right to have a guaranteed hours contract. If the threshold is set at 20 hours:
Jane, a retail worker who is contracted to 21 hours per week, will not be entitled to a contract that reflects the hours she normally works. Jane actually works at least 30 hours, every week. She needs those hours to pay her bills and feed her family. However, her employer can take those hours away from her at any time.
Jane is afraid to raise any issues with her manager, in case they decide to take hours off her. As a result, she is at increased risk of bullying and harassment, or unsafe working practices. Her earnings aren’t secure enough for her to rely on them in a mortgage, rental or credit application. It’s also difficult for her to plan childcare because if she books her children into after school club on days where she doesn’t end up working, she will still have to pay for it.
The insecurity of her hours has a negative impact on Jane’s mental health and family life. She isn’t able to get a second job because her employer expects her to be completely flexible with her availability, despite not offering her a contract that reflects her normal hours. Jane voted Labour in the General Election and a big part of that was because she thought that she would get a secure contract, as promised in the manifesto. She now feels let down and frustrated.
Jane’s colleague, Amina, is contracted to work 18 hours a week. She usually works 30 hours a week, and those hours are essential to her family income, particularly in the cost of living crisis. Amina finds out that she is now entitled to a contract that reflects the number of hours she normally works, which she is delighted about.
However, a few months before the law comes into effect, she notices that her employer suddenly stops giving her extra hours and she is only getting her contracted 18 hours every week. Amina hears that some of her other colleagues, like Jane, have no problem getting the extra hours they need.
Amina realises that her manager is deliberately blocking her from getting extra hours because they don’t want her to get them guaranteed in her contract. They are instead offering all available hours to people who are contracted to more than 20 hours per week. In an attempt to get her hours back, Amina asks her manager if there are any 20+ hour contracts available – and is told there are none.
Amina is now no longer getting the hours she needs to pay her bills. She is forced to rely on payday loans and food banks to feed her family. What had seemed like a lifeline to give Amina more security at work has now made her worse off than she was before.
People finding themselves in Amina’s situation are more likely to be women, disabled and Black and Minority ethnic workers, meaning that the threshold will have a disproportionate impact on workers with those protected characteristics.
If everyone was entitled to a guaranteed hours contract, the employer would have no incentive to treat people differently based on the number of hours they are contracted to work.
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also represents many workers in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion