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Zero-hours contracts
[ch 3: page 37]Evidence submitted by a range of unions (including UCU, EIS and RMT) in 2014 to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee on Zero-Hours Contracts (ZHCs) confirmed the difficulties faced by many workers on ZHCs, including a lack of sick pay.
The TUC’s Decent Jobs Week campaign at the end of 2014 revealed that zero-hours workers are five times more likely not to qualify for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) than permanent workers as a result of their lower level of take home pay. This is because two out of five (39%) earn less than £111 a week — the qualifying threshold for statutory sick pay at that time — compared to one in 12 (8%) of permanent employees.
In 2013, Sports Direct employee Zahera Gabriel-Abraham, launched a legal challenge to ZHC contracts under the Part-Time Workers Regulations 2000 (PTWR). In November 2014, the company agreed to major changes in their recruitment and policy practices for zero-hours staff including clear written policies setting out what sick pay and paid holiday zero-hours staff are entitled to.