\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen Seamus Foley took a job on a zero-hours contract at a board games bar in London two years ago, the flexibility it offered was appealing. Now, it is a deal so bad he is prepared to walk out on strike.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s exhausting. You\u2019re constantly living your life on the back foot,\u201d says the employee at Draughts, which has bars in Stratford and Waterloo. There, workers fed up with last-minute rota changes and a lack of basic protections are staging industrial action.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like all the power is in the hands of the employer. Like [the contract] is designed to keep you desperate, hungry and uncertain as to what your next week or two weeks look like,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n Almost 1.2 million workers in the UK are on zero-hours contracts. Despite the preparations being made by Keir Starmer\u2019s government to ban the use of exploitative arrangements, a key manifesto promise, the zero-hours ranks have swelled since Labour\u2019s election victory, rising by more than 100,000 to close to a record high.<\/p>\n Big employers with hundreds of thousands of zero-hours staff between them include McDonald\u2019s, Burger King, Dominos and Mike Ashley\u2019s Frasers Group, and the contracts are still routinely used in social care, hospitality and logistics.<\/p>\n Workers\u2019 rights have been a long-running battle between the government and employers \u2013 a row that will intensify this autumn once MPs return from their summer break amid fierce lobbying to water down Labour\u2019s employment rights legislation.<\/p>\n A flashpoint will come in a showdown between ministers and Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers, after the Lords imposed amendments in the final days before the summer recess to drastically curtail the bill.<\/p>\n People on zero-hours contract graphic<\/p>\n Justin Madders, the employment minister, said Labour would face down the critics. \u201cWe have got a democratic mandate to introduce this bill and the measures. Our starting point is we would continue with it. We\u2019ll see where we end up [with the Lords], but I don\u2019t think at the moment we\u2019ll be looking to resile from things that were clearly in our manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n Business groups say the cost of hiring staff has soared under Labour after the chancellor Rachel Reeves\u2019s \u00a325bn increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and rise in the \u201cnational living wage\u201d were introduced from April.<\/p>\n Firms say too many changes are being made at once when Britain\u2019s economy is weak and the jobs market cooling. Unemployment has risen, partly due to Reeves\u2019s tax rises. Businesses say adding to their costs further would drive joblessness higher, highlighting a \u00a35bn price tag for the workers\u2019 rights policy in the government\u2019s own impact assessment.<\/p>\n <\/span>Workers from Draughts are joined by striking hotel cleaners from Radisson Blu. <\/span> Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Jane Gratton, the deputy director for public policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: \u201cYou\u2019ll have seen from the figures that the labour market is loosening. If you make it more difficult and costly to employ people, it\u2019s likely to impact on opportunities for people. It will drive business behaviour. We know the government\u2019s own assessment is \u00a35bn. We think that\u2019s probably an underestimate.\u201d<\/p>\n A Federation of Small Businesses survey found 67% of small firms would recruit fewer staff. Firms also say many zero-hours workers like the flexibility the contracts offer, including students in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cThese measures will just tie businesses in knots and will have real negative impacts on workers too, such as stopping people swapping shifts. It shows what goes wrong when there is such an out-of-touch approach to policymaking,\u201d said Tina McKenzie, the lobby group\u2019s policy chair.<\/p>\n Hospitality graphic<\/p>\n Some lobbyists believe Labour is more likely to cede ground on workers\u2019 rights than on tax and spending before a tough autumn budget. Unlike a costly and embarrassing U-turn on employer NICs, any changes would be fiscally neutral, and it would sit well with Reeves\u2019s wider deregulatory agenda.<\/p>\n However, party insiders say this would underestimate Reeves\u2019 and Starmer\u2019s commitment to stronger workers\u2019 rights. Both are also under pressure to stick to the policy after disappointing many core Labour voters since coming to power.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s chief proponent, the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, said the government wanted to work closely with businesses to make the details of the bill work, including a consultation on the zero-hours ban this autumn, but that changes were vital after years of workplace exploitation.<\/p>\n \u201cZero-hours contracts are leaving far too many people without the security they deserve \u2013 working hard but left waiting for shifts, unsure what their pay will be month to month. We are tackling this head-on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Under Labour\u2019s planned changes, zero-hours workers will get the right to a guaranteed-hours contract reflecting their hours over a 12-week reference period. This comes alongside other measures including day-one protections against unfair dismissal and rolling back trade union restrictions.<\/p>\n To overcome business concerns over the breadth of the policy changes, the government has planned to introduce each step gradually, with the ban on zero-hours contracts coming last in late 2027.<\/p>\n <\/span>The striking workers are represented by the union United Voices of the World. <\/span> Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n However, critics on Labour\u2019s left say this is glacial change and warn that allowing continued use of zero-hours contracts does not constitute a ban and leaves too much power in the hands of bad bosses.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Madders said Labour had sought to strike a balance that recognised how some workers appreciate the flexibility of zero hours, while tipping the balance to stop bad employers forcing staff to stay on those terms against their will.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have done is find a pretty sweet spot where, actually, people who want some certainty and security at work will be able to have that. The bill is done in a way that can make sure that people who do not want to be on a zero-hours contract will not be forced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Official figures show 60% of zero-hours workers do not want more hours. About a quarter are in full-time education and more than half are under the age of 35. Those on the contracts work about 19 hours a week on average, compared with 32 hours for other workers. As many as 10% of zero-hours workers have been on such an arrangement with their employer for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n Working conditions have long been an early casualty of straitened economic conditions in Britain. Zero-hours contracts first rose to prominence in the febrile climate after the 2008 financial crisis as employers sought a way to flexibly ramp up their labour capacity to meet slowly returning consumer demand, with the get-out clause that they could reduce staff hours to cut their costs if things turned south again.<\/p>\n Hours graphic<\/p>\n Mike Ashley, the billionaire retail tycoon, and his Sports Direct chain became a target for public anger over its use of the contracts and its wider employment practices after a Guardian investigation found workers at its main warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, were receiving an effective hourly pay rate below the minimum wage.<\/p>\n As the contracts became near synonymous with worker exploitation, some firms dropped them, including the pub chain JD Wetherspoon. McDonald\u2019s moved to allow workers to choose a guaranteed-hours contract. However, about 90% of McDonald\u2019s 135,000 UK staff are still on zero-hours terms and the fast food chain has faced accusations of harassment and sexual assault by managers. McDonald\u2019s did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Unions say warnings over the hit to the jobs market resemble the same arguments used in the 1990s against Labour introducing the minimum wage, which were shown to be false. They highlight that strengthening workers\u2019 rights is a vote winner, backed by most of the electorate, and that more job security is key to boosting workforce productivity.<\/p>\n Young adults contracts graphic<\/p>\n Tim Sharp, the head of employment rights at the TUC, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had this long experiment with zero hours and other forms of precarious contract for too long. There is no incentive for employers to train and develop their workers and we pay the economic price for that.\u201d<\/p>\n However, analysis by the Resolution Foundation suggests the changes will have neither a massive negative impact nor a huge positive one. Even if the government\u2019s \u00a35bn cost to businesses transpires, it would equate to just 11,000 job losses.<\/p>\n It said: \u201cThis is tiny \u2013 cutting the employment rate by just 0.02% \u2013 in the context of changes that will give millions of workers new protections at work.\u201d<\/p>\n For Foley and his striking co-workers on the picket line at Draughts, efforts to negotiate guaranteed-hours contracts have so far run into a dead end. \u201cThus far it seems to be something they\u2019re not willing to entertain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Represented by the United Voices of the World union, it is the first time the bar worker has been involved in industrial action. He said Draughts\u2019 managers had sought to reassure staff they would be treated fairly regardless of their contracts, but this amounted to very little. \u201cYou can\u2019t take a verbal agreement. Ultimately, if we don\u2019t have something written into our contracts, we can\u2019t enforce upon it when it\u2019s breached.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI don\u2019t feel like they\u2019ve given us any sort of solid response that isn\u2019t a platitude.\u201d Draughts did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Despite fearing employers could still \u201cgame the system\u201d under Labour\u2019s proposals, Foley said the changes could still be very attractive. \u201cIt would definitely be better than what we have now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Seamus Foley took a job on a zero-hours contract at a board games bar in London two years ago, the flexibility it offered was appealing. Now, it is a deal so bad he is prepared to walk out on strike. \u201cIt\u2019s exhausting. 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