Two in three zero-hours contract workers have been with their current employer for over a year – prolonging their low pay and insecurity – as a union calls for an outright ban on their use.
There are an estimated 1.15 million people on zero-hours contracts, and while a minority are on them as a stop gap, half (46%) have been with their current employer for over two years.
According to analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), one in eight have been with the same employer for more than a decade.
It warns that hundreds of thousands of workers are being trapped in low pay and insecurity as employers “park workers on zero-hours contracts for years on end”.
For many, they claim this contract work is the only one available to them. One in 10 cited work-life balance as an important reason as to why they’re on zero-hours terms.
However, the TUC said many would prefer the opportunity to work flexibly within a secure job.
It also revealed that black and minority ethnic (BME) women are nearly three times as likely to be on zero-hours contracts as white men (6.8% compared to 2.5%).
Indeed, the number of BME workers in insecure work more than doubled from 2011 to 2022 – from 360,200 to 836,300.
The TUC said this increase in zero-hours contracts for BME workers reflects “structural racism in the jobs market”.
Further, the union criticised the contract structure, as workers never know how much they’ll earn each week, “with their income subject to the whims of managers”.
As such, it makes it hard for workers to plan their lives, budget and look after children, as well as making it harder for workers to challenge their bosses because of concerns they won’t be allocated hours in the future.
The TUC said a ban on zero-hours contracts is “long overdue” as it wants to see all workers have a right to a contract that reflects their regular hours.
Labour is promising a ban on zero-hours contracts as part of its New Deal for Working People – which it says it will deliver with an employment bill in its first 100 days, if elected.
‘No guarantee of shifts’
TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, said: “Everyone should be treated fairly at work. But too many workers – especially BME women – are trapped in low-paid jobs on zero-hours contracts, with few rights and protections and no guarantee of shifts.
“Bad employers are parking workers on zero-hours contracts for years on end. It’s not right.
“These precarious contracts hand almost total control over workers’ hours and earning power to managers – making it nigh on impossible to plan budgets and childcare.
“Insecure work has boomed on the Conservatives’ watch over the past 14 years – with the number of workers on zero-hours contracts hitting the one million mark.
“That’s why a ban on zero-hours contracts is long overdue. Working people should have a right to a contract that reflects their regular hours of work.
“It’s time for a New Deal for Working People, like Labour is proposing – which includes a ban on zero-hours contracts, ensuring workers get reasonable notice of shifts and an end to fire and rehire.”
