"When Seamus Foley took a job on a zero-hours contract at a board games bar in London two years ago, the flexibility it offered was appealing. Now, it is a deal so bad he is prepared to walk out on strike. It's exhausting. You're constantly living your life on the back foot, says the employee at Draughts, which has bars in Stratford and Waterloo."
"Almost 1.2 million workers in the UK are on zero-hours contracts. Despite the preparations being made by Keir Starmer's government to ban the use of exploitative arrangements, a key manifesto promise, the zero-hours ranks have swelled since Labour's election victory, rising by more than 100,000 to close to a record high. Big employers with hundreds of thousands of zero-hours staff between them include McDonald's, Burger King, Dominos and Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, and the contracts are still routinely used in social care, hospitality and logistics."
Seamus Foley accepted a zero-hours contract for flexibility but now faces exhausting uncertainty and is prepared to join industrial action. Workers at Draughts in Stratford and Waterloo are striking over last-minute rota changes and lack of basic protections. Almost 1.2 million people in the UK are on zero-hours contracts, a number that has increased by over 100,000 since the election. Major employers and sectors including McDonald's, Burger King, Dominos, Frasers Group, social care, hospitality and logistics widely use such contracts. The Labour government is preparing legislation to ban exploitative arrangements and expects a contentious parliamentary battle with peers and opponents.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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