Lords pass amendment to weaken crackdown on zero-hours contracts.

The Employment Rights Bill suffered a set-back on Monday, as Conservative and Liberal-Democrat peers successfully passed amendments that weaken the government’s measures to tackle insecure work.

The amendments seeks to curb two elements of the Bill’s provisions on zero-hours contracts. The first seeks to change the provisions in the Bill from a requirement for an employer to offer guaranteed hours to a right to request guaranteed hours by an employee. The second exempts employers from having to make a payment to a worker if a shift was cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice.

Lord Goddard defended his tabled the amendments, arguing that:

Although we recognise that some workers do not want precarious zero-hours contracts, this should not come at the expense of sectors where flexibility is essential and many workers are content with those arrangements. This would balance security for workers with necessary flexibility for employers in sectors that rely on flexibility.

Paddy Lillis, General Secretary of USDAW, responded to the amendments saying:

We urge the Government to defend the Bill from these unwarranted attacks by rejecting the amendments when it comes back to the House of Commons. Making work more secure was clearly a key part of Labour’s manifesto, which was overwhelmingly supported by voters in last year’s landslide general election win. It ill becomes unelected Tories and Lib Dems to go against the expressed will of the people.

Although these amendments passed during the Report Stage, they lack government support and can still be overturned during the Commons stage. Experts at the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) have analysed the Bill’s provisions aimed at ending exploitative zero-hours contracts and found that the initial guarantee of minimum working hours is severely undermined by an optional waiver—a loophole that leaves the door open to employer abuse. You can read a briefing on the Employment Rights Bill here. 

Institute of Employment Rights Director, James Harrison, commented:

“Sadly for zero-hour contract workers – with or without this latest House of Lords amendment – they will be forced to put up with continued insecurity at work for years to come without further intervention from trade unions.

“The rationale for the Tory/Lib-Dem amendment on ZHC’s is flawed. There was already an existing power in the Bill for the minority of workers who don’t want regular hours to refuse them. This amendment wipes out any power the provision had – as a right to request regular hours amounts to nothing when confronted with employer coercion. We need to force employers to act fairly, not have Oliver Twist clauses like this forcing workers in to the indignity of having to beg for regular hours.

“At every stage of the Employment Rights Bill there has been watering down, to the point where the initial claims of banning zero-hour contracts and banning fire and rehire, no longer seem credible.

“Once the movement has seen through the spin around the Bill, it looks like we are going to have to push for a 2nd employment Bill, to plug the gaps and tighten up the law to truly protect workers, in deed as well as in word.”