Agency workers will reportedly be included in the zero-hour contact ban.
Under the new rules, employers will have to offer agency workers contracts with a minimum number of hours each week, the BBC reported. Alongside this, agency workers who choose to be on zero-hour contracts will be eligible for compensation if their shifts are cancelled or changed at short notice.
Zero hour contracts are a type of working contract in which the employer does not need to set any working hours for the employee. However, it also means the worker does not have to accept the work offered by their employer.
These types of contracts, also known as “casual” contracts”, can be flexible options for both employers and workers. However, over the last decade, more and more workers have been placed on these contracts, with businesses able to exploit their flexibility, leaving workers on a financial knife edge.
About one million UK workers are currently on zero-hours contracts in areas such as warehouses, hospitality, and the NHS, and around 900,000 are agency staff. According to the TUC, hundreds of thousands of these workers are on zero-hours contracts despite working for the same employer for years.
The policies are among some 250 additions to the Employment Rights Bill tabled after consultations with business groups and trade unions. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says the inclusion of agency work in the move to ban zero-hour contracts has been put forward so it does not become a “loophole.”
He said: “The Government believes that every worker should be able to access a contract which reflects the hours they regularly work. We believe this should extend to agency workers, not only to offer them greater certainty of hours and security of income, but to also ensure that agency work does not become a loophole in the plans to end exploitative zero-hours contracts.”
Paul Novak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the government was right to close this “loophole,” noting that agency workers “make up a significant proportion of the zero-hours workforce and need protections from bad working practices too”.
However, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is concerned that the change should not “undermine” the flexibility that zero-hours contracts offer some people. Other major recruiters and staffing agencies have also voiced concern. Back in December, Hays, Adecco, and Manpower wrote to the business secretary saying that the new rules were “unworkable” and would lead to lower hiring levels and more work being delayed or carried out by people taken on as self-employed.
The REC’s chief executive, Kate Shoesmith, said people choose agency work “for the flexibility it provides at a time and stage in their life” and that the new rules must not undermine that. She added that time should be given “to ensure any legislative changes do not conflict with existing and hard-won protections for agency workers”, adding that the REC will continue to work with the government to ensure this.
According to reports, the minimum hours offered in a contract to agency workers will be calculated according to the average number of hours they normally work. However, it has not been confirmed. It is believed that it will be based on a 12-week reference period, although it could be longer. The amendments also do not explain the definition of “short notice” in regard to compensation payments for cancelled shifts.
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