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The Gig is Up

Trade unions tackling insecure work
Report type
Research and reports
Issue date

Over three million people – one in ten of the UK workforce – now face insecurity at work. Not only do they often face uncertainty about their working hours, they also miss out on rights and protections that many of us take for granted, including being able to return to the same job after having a baby, or the right to sick pay when they cannot work.

This report shows the impact of insecurity at work on workers themselves, and on the UK’s economy and public finances. And it reports back from a TUC survey of people in insecure jobs, enabling them to tell us about their experience of work in their own words.

Most importantly, the report sets out what policy-makers could do to ensure that the modern world of work is one in which everyone can have a decent job – not one of ever-increasing insecurity. We want policy-makers to:

  • help more workers to have voice at work
  • upgrade our framework of employment rights to make it fit for the twenty-first century
  • make sure those rights are properly enforced
  • ensure that the tax, social security and pensions systems all encourage employers to offer decent jobs, and guarantees that everyone has a decent standard of living when they’re not at work.
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