Expert employment lawyers have called the UK government’s zero hour contract legislation “toothless” with unions stating that the government’s laws on the matter “totally miss the point”.
Under the Liberal Democrat-Conservative government’s Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act, employers were prohibited from banning or having a clause banning employees on zero hour contracts from holding jobs elsewhere. Many experts and union officials have stated that the reforms on zero hour contracts do nothing for workers and do not get rid of zero hour contracts in the workplace, but rather condones the contracts and urges workers to get more than one job.
The move comes following the high awareness brought on the subject of zero hour contracts that came in the build up the election. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband vowed to get rid of such contracts stating that they were only beneficial to employers. Under zero hour contracts employees get no set working hours, no guaranteed wage and can miss out on sick pay, annual leave and holiday pay.
Despite the reforms to zero hour contracts and the government allowing those on zero hour contracts to get another job, many employment and legal experts stated that the reforms from the government were “toothless.” This is due to the fact that there was no enforcement measures to hold employers accountable for their actions and no way for employees to report any incidents. Zero hour workers were effectively unable to take action even if they were banned from taking another job or lost hours as a result of accepting a secondary offer.
Employment lawyer Elizabeth George said: "This piece of legislation says that employers can’t enforce these clauses in a zero-hours contract. But if they operate a policy of reducing or not offering hours to those who have work elsewhere there’s no right for workers to do anything about it.”
David Martyn, a lawyer at Thompsons Solicitors, who are working for former workers at USC who were on zero hour contracts stated that the legislation did not aid workers who could have their hours cut as soon as they told an employer of another job. He said: “At the moment this legislation is the very definition of toothless, there is no way this can benefit zero-hours workers.”
Unions and others have been quick to also condemn the introduction of such legislation with many stating that companies could easily sidestep the new reforms as there is simply no way to enforce the law. Philip Landau said: “The flexible nature of zero-hour contracts means most employers won’t be unduly troubled by the new law.”
Unite’s assistant general secretary, Steve Turner said: “Banning exclusivity clauses is a joke. It misses the key point that zero hours confer fear and misery of those forced into them – no security, no protection and little dignity.
“With millions now declared ‘self employed’, underemployed and insecure at work, we believe the scale of workplace insecurity is vastly underestimated. When business fails to create decent jobs, there are serious, deep social and economic consequences for our country.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “The government is serious about tackling exploitative zero-hours contracts and we have taken the first step by banning them.
“In commencing this provision, we are able to use secondary legislation to create a route of redress for any individual whose employer ignores the ban.”
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