Pressure mounts on zero-hour contracts


Ian Pattison, Youth Fight for Jobs

Sports Direct, notorious for its widespread use of zero-hour employment contracts, has been forced to make clear in job adverts what its workers legal rights are. Although zero-hour contracts do not guarantee work, employees do qualify for statutory sick pay and holiday pay.

The company, owned by billionaire Mike Ashley, agreed to this change in an out of court settlement after a former worker was due to take Sports Direct to an employment tribunal over its alleged abuse of zero-hour contracts.

However, the company is not scrapping zero-hours – under which nearly 90% of its workforce is employed – so the fight to end this casual employment practice goes on.

Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), which has targeted Sports Direct with protests up and down the country over the last year, will continue to fight for permanent, full-time jobs on a living wage and for trade union rights – the best antidote to exploitation in the workplace.

David Cameron, George Osborne, and other leading millionaire Tories are too ‘confused’ to explain how unemployment is down at the same time that wages are falling. But what the millionaire politicians can’t work out is obvious to the millions who have been suffering under brutal austerity and rising use of zero-hour contracts for years.

YFJ works closely with the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers Union (Bfawu) in the Fast Food Rights campaign.

Fast Food Rights’ next big protest will be to lobby Parliament (Old Palace Yard, Westminster) on Friday 21 November, 12 noon, (two days after students will march for free education) when MPs discuss zero-hour contracts.

Zero-hour contracts must be scrapped, and all workers should receive a minimum wage of at least £10 an hour, as a step toward a living wage.