USDAW warns Govt against narrowing guaranteed hours commitment at Select Committee

Retail trade union leader Joanne Thomas, Usdaw general secretary, has given evidence to the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee about the impact of the Government consultation on the details of the right to a guaranteed hours contract, as part of the Employment Rights Act. The union says that narrowing the right to workers contracted for less than 20 hours does not meet Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment to “everyone”.

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. The union says that 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.