'I would challenge any politician or business leader to try and survive on a zero-hours contract'
5 June 2024, 15:17 | Updated: 6 June 2024, 12:31
'I would challenge any politician or business leader to try and survive on a zero-hours contract', writes Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
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Everyone who works for a living deserves to earn a decent living. But the last 14 years have been terrible for family incomes
Pay packets are still worth less - in real terms - than in 2008 as households live through the worst period for living standards in modern history.
New TUC analysis shows that number of people in low-paid and insecure work has now hit a record 4.1 million – an increase of nearly a million since 2011.
What a grim milestone!
1 in 8 workers in this country are currently trapped in jobs that offer little or no security.
I would challenge any politician or business leader to try and survive on a zero-hours contract not knowing how much they’ll earn from one week to next. Not knowing how they’ll pay the rent and bills. Not knowing how they’ll plan their childcare.
But that is the reality facing many workers in Britain today.
In social care alone over a fifth (22%) of the workforce are on zero-hours contracts. Is it any surprise that we have a staffing crisis in this sector?
Things can’t carry on like this. We need a government that will make work pay and ensure that everybody is treated with dignity at work.
That’s why Labour’s New Deal for Working People is so important.
It will be the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation - giving day one protections to millions. And it could help give millions a union voice – a real safeguard against low pay and bad bosses.
It cannot come soon enough.
The UK’s long experiment with a low-rights, low-wage economy has been terrible for growth, productivity and living standards.
We must end the race to the bottom on employment standards to stop good employers from being undercut by the bad - and to ensure everyone has jobs they can build a life on.
