The government's proposed reforms to zero-hours contracts could leave millions of workers worse off, undermining one of Labour's flagship employment pledges, a retail workers union has warned.
Giving evidence to the Business and Trade Select Committee, Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas criticised plans to limit the right to guaranteed-hours contracts to workers contracted for between eight and 20 hours a week.
The government is consulting on proposals to introduce a right to a contract that reflects the hours regularly worked. However, its preferred approach would restrict that right to employees working no more than 20 contracted hours a week.
Usdaw argues the move would exclude a significant number of workers who Labour had originally pledged to protect.
"We would end up in a situation where you bring in an Employment Rights Act that could actually leave workers worse off," Thomas told MPs.
"It would be catastrophic and would actually go against the whole spirit of the Employment Rights Act. What the legislation was intended to do was to improve working conditions and the opportunity for workers to get access to financial security, that they’ve needed for so long.”
Labour's 2024 general election manifesto pledged to "end one-sided flexibility" by banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and ensuring workers have the right to a contract reflecting the hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week reference period.
According to Labour Force Survey data, around 2.6 million people are employed on zero-hours or short-hours contracts. Usdaw said restricting eligibility based on contracted hours would leave many of those workers without the financial certainty Labour had promised.
When asked whether there could be a compromise on the proposed threshold, Thomas rejected the idea.
“We absolutely can’t, if it is going to exclude groups of workers and actually make those workers financially worse off. Suffering huge detriments and having a disproportionate impact on women and disabled workers.
"Everybody that wants one should have a contract that reflects the hours that they work. Not everybody wants one, but they should at least have the opportunity to access one, to access that better standard of living and to be able to operate their life with some element of fairness, which they currently can’t.
"This is impacting millions of workers.”
The government is currently consulting on the proposals before finalising the legislation.
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector.