THE majority of workers on zero-hours contracts are stuck in insecure but long-term work, a TUC study published today has revealed.
Research by the union federation found that two in three such workers have been with their employers for more than a year.
Almost half have been with their current employer for more than two years and one in eight have been for more than a decade.
Of the hundreds of thousands of zero-hours workers in the country — the latest available data show there are 1.15 million people on such contracts — just seven per cent were on the precarious contracts for less than three months.
Black and minority ethnic women are nearly three times as likely to be on zero-hours contracts as white men.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Bad employers are parking workers on zero-hours contracts for years on end.
“These precarious contracts hand almost total control over workers’ hours and earning power to managers, making it nigh on impossible to plan budgets and childcare.
“Everyone should be treated fairly at work. But too many workers — especially black and ethnic minority women — are trapped in low-paid jobs on zero-hours contracts, with few rights and protections and no guarantee of shifts.
“That’s why a ban on zero-hours contracts is long overdue. Working people should have a right to a contract that reflects their regular hours of work.”
The TUC is issuing its findings following calls by bosses for Labour to scale back its New Deal for Working People, which includes a ban on zero-hours contracts.
Mr Nowak said: “Employers need to get on board with Labour’s New Deal for Working People — and good employers will.
“The UK’s long experiment with a low-rights, low-wage economy is a complete failure. The Tories’ lack of an economic plan for jobs, growth and living standards has cost workers and industry dear.”
TUC polling in 2021 showed that by far the most important reason that people take zero-hours contract work is because it was the only work available.
Some 16 per cent said the reason was it was the typical contract in their line of work and just 9 per cent cited work-life balance as the most important reason. The TUC said that many in this group would prefer the opportunity to work flexibly within a secure job.
