Toggle high contrast

Give workers a sporting chance

Issue date

The controversial use of Zero Hours contracts made the headlines again last week as Sports Direct faced questions on its use of zero hours contracts for part time staff at its AGM last week.

ShareAction used its rights as a shareholder to ask a question about the firm's continued reliance on zero hours contracts at the meeting, to which they received no comment from Sports Direct.

It has been reported that approximately 20,000 (90%) of Sports Direct workers are on zero hours contracts - which equates to 1 in 6 of their entire UK workforce.

Unions are concerned that following the recession, growing numbers of people are trapped in low paid, insecure jobs.  The majority of ZHC workers don’t receive the Living Wage. The growth in ZHCs is also contributing to the growth in under-employment, with those workers on the contracts tending to work short part-time hours but wanting - and in many cases needing - more hours each week.

ZHC workers and others in casual work (agency workers, false self-employed, etc) are not benefiting from the recovery. Instead they are being forced to increasingly rely on food banks and pay day loans to make ends meet.

ONS suggest there are 1.4 million ZHCs in use in the UK with a further 1.3 million with no guarantee of work in each week.  These official stats are only likely to go up in coming months.  This is a major problem in public services, especially social care and in parts of the retail sector.

Young people desperate to gain experience of the world of work are the most vulnerable to this kind of exploitation. Anyone employed in a zero hours capacity can never be sure how many hours they'll work or how much money they'll get in their pay packet, which puts a real strain on their already stretched finances and can make organising childcare a logistical nightmare.

The TUC is still calling for the end to the abuse of zero hours contract workers.  In particular:

  • ZHC workers should have better access to permanent, secure jobs with decent guaranteed hours.
  • All ‘flexible workers’ should be properly remunerated - including being paid for any time spent on call for the employer.  They should also be paid if work is cancelled at short notice. 
  • The floor of rights should be raised for all workers. ZHC workers, agency workers etc should have the right to redundancy pay when laid off and the right to family friendly working such as the right to return to work after maternity leave.

It’s not just trade unions who agree that dignity at work is providing people with secure employment, good terms and conditions and that employers should share the proceeds of growth with the workforce.  It has been repeatedly proven that good employment does much more than provide the means to support workers and their families; it is essential to health and wellbeing, personal fulfilment and basic human dignity.

Beth Farhat

Northern TUC Regional Secretary

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

To access the admin area, you will need to setup two-factor authentication (TFA).

Setup now