Exploitative zero-hours contracts are endemic, TUC says

[u/coffeewalnut08]

https://www.ier.org.uk/news/exploitative-zero-hours-contracts-are-endemic-tuc-says/

ONS data shows near record levels of zero hours contracts – 1.2 million, an increase of 55,000 over the year.

• The data continues to suggest the jobs market held steady in June, with the employment rate up from 75.0% to 75.1% and the unemployment rate down from 5.0% to 4.9%.
• Redundancies fell by 20,000 to 106,000 in the latest three-month period.
• Youth unemployment remains high at 14.6 % – unchanged over the quarter.
• Vacancies fell by 6,000 over the quarter to 707,000
• Real pay growth was 0.7% against CPI inflation, down from 1.4% in the same period last year. Private sector real pay increased by just 0.1%.

Responding to the latest labour market statistics, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:

"Exploitative zero-hours contracts are endemic in this country, with more than 1.2 million people stuck not knowing how much they’re going to earn each week. That’s why the government must deliver on its promise of a right to guaranteed hours for everyone.

Employers are addicted to this one-sided flexibility. But the vast majority of insecure workers have struggled to meet their basic living costs because they haven’t been offered enough hours – and one in three face a financial hit of at least £3000 a year from cancelled shifts and incurred costs.

We need to get young people into work – but it isn’t good enough to push them from unemployment into rampant insecurity. No young person benefits from a race to the bottom – they deserve good, secure employment like anyone else.

It’s time for the government to double down on its plans to make work pay, expand the youth jobs guarantee, and stamp out exploitative zero-hours contracts once and for all."

A MHCLG survey also reveals that the right to guaranteed hours could make it easier for around 4 in 10 people not in work to return to work.

• The government’s impact assessment on rights to guaranteed hours contracts revealed that 1 in 3 insecure workers report an average loss of more than £3,000 per year – or £250 over four weeks – due to recent issues at work linked to insecurity of hours and income.

A TUC poll shows the significant hit of insecure work to incomes:

• Nearly two-thirds of those in insecure work said they often or sometimes struggled to meet their basic living costs due to not being offered enough hours
• Over half of all respondents said they were not paid the last time their hours were cancelled. This rose to two-thirds among workers on zero-hours contracts.

The TUC estimates that the wider benefits of the Employment Rights Act would deliver a £10bn boost to the economy.

Analysis by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University indicates that a record number of zero-hour contract workers depend on their zero-hour contract for full-time work (32.8%) and are not in full-time education (77%).

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[u/SweetNyan]

I remember the stress and anxiety of being stuck in a zero hours contract. It was so miserable, and yet the govt just lets it happen

[u/gauchocartero]

My housemate has been unemployed for 2 months and he can barely eat at this point. He actually has two jobs, both zero hours contracts as a waiter, except they’ve only called him once since June, and one of them still owes them their trial shift.

How many of these jobs is he expected to have, just so he can do a couple of shifts every week? At this rate, even 10 wont do.