Zero-hours contract rights extended to agency workers under Employment Rights Bill amendments

UK business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP said in a written statement that the Government had received “many detailed responses” to an initial package of four consultations launched last year after the Employment Rights Bill was laid before Parliament on 10 October.

Photograph: iStock/benedek

Following the responses, the Government tabled an amendment that would extend zero-hours contract rights to agency workers. Among the 28 measures contained in the original Bill the Government said those who worked regular hours over a defined period would have the right to a guaranteed hours contract.

“The obligation to provide a guaranteed hours offer will rest with the end hirer, but legislation will maintain flexibility to place the obligation on agencies or other intermediaries instead, in certain scenarios, which will be set out in secondary legislation,” said Reynolds. “Both the end hirer and agency will be responsible for providing an agency worker with reasonable notice of shifts, shift cancellations and changes to shifts.” If shifts are cancelled at short notice, agencies will have to compensate workers.

Further consultations with employers, the recruitment sector and trade unions will take place before more detailed regulations are set out.

British Safety Council’s chief executive, Mike Robinson, has welcomed the amendment on zero-hours contracts, but cautions that it may be some time before any of the provisions in the Bill become law.

“New rules protecting people on so-called ‘zero-hours’ contracts would represent a positive step and offer more certainty in jobs where flexibility should benefit workers as well as employers,” said Robinson. “Indeed, many of the provisions in the Employment Rights Bill are welcome, even though it may be some time before we know exactly which provisions end up in law.”

He added that the Government’s aim to reduce exploitative working practices and provide additional protections to workers, “reflects the rapidly changing nature of work in the 21st Century, particularly for those in less stable forms of work”. Legislation, said Robinson, “must strike the right balance between an expansion of employee rights and the application of these rights in practice”.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC union, has also welcomed the amendment on zero-hours contracts.

“The Government is right to close this loophole,” said Nowak. “To properly crack down on exploitative zero-hours contracts, agency workers have to be included. Agency workers will now benefit from more security over their working hours and better protections from bad working practices.”

On statutory sick pay (SSP), the Government has tabled an amendment to set the percentage rate that will be paid up to a flat rate of 80 per cent of an employee’s normal weekly earnings. The Bill removes the waiting period so that SSP is paid from the first day of sickness absence and extends eligibility to lower earners.

Other amendments include expanding trade union recognition and access, strengthening remedies against fire and rehire policies, and expanding the scope of the Employment Agencies Act 1973 to allow umbrella companies to be regulated for the purposes of employment rights.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has described the amendments as a “missed opportunity” to help businesses cope with the changes that are coming.

“The chief concerns among small businesses remain the threat of being taken to court as soon as they take a risk hiring someone, the affordability of proposals on sick pay, and the sheer unworkability of other parts of this mass of complex new rules,” said FSB policy chair, Tina McKenzie. “We hope the Government will move from asserting that these changes are pro-business to making that a reality.”