Plan to ban exclusivity clauses

On 26 March 2015, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 received Royal Assent. The Act contains a ban on so-called “exclusivity clauses”. An exclusivity clause is a contract term that requires the worker to accept any work if offered but that fails to promise work. Only a small minority (roughly one in 10) of ZHC arrangements are “exclusive” in this way. The ban has not yet been enacted.

Draft regulations have been published — the Zero Hours Workers (Exclusivity Terms) Regulations 2015. These are supposed to protect workers from detriment on the ground that they have worked under another contract. The regulations also propose extending the “exclusivity” ban to contracts that guarantee a low income. The threshold is still to be decided.

The TUC has called for compensation, including travel costs, where zero-hours shifts are cancelled at short notice; written contracts with guaranteed hours and regular shifts; a ban on “exclusivity” clauses for all workers, and simplification of employment law so that all workers get the same basic employment rights, targeting in particular the complicated laws of service continuity and employment status.

The TUC also wants greater use of public procurement — for example, refusing to award government contracts to employers who are not prepared to rule out ZHCs and to commit to direct employment, as well as measures to strengthen sector-based collective bargaining, to counter low pay for all workers.