Equality

Equality issues need to be at the forefront of any campaign against casualisation, because as the TUC says, “gender, ethnicity and age interact with the landscape of casualisation and low pay”. The young, in particular, are disproportionately affected. Very high proportions of people in their 20s (40% of temporary workers aged 20-24 and 45% of workers aged 24-29) report working part-time because they cannot find full-time work. There is also a sector-based effect. Some sectors, like hospitality, use high numbers of low-paid young casual workers. Other sectors, such as domiciliary care, where at least 70% of workers are on zero hours contracts (see Chapter 6), recruit mainly women, including high numbers of migrant workers.

As the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has noted, legal regulation is not effective in tackling these problems. A system of protection built on individual employment rights will always struggle to protect casual workers, especially since most rights and protections have been built around so-called “standard” two party employment relationships, based on direct and continuous employment. Even if a casual worker is willing to risk speaking up for their individual rights, it is usually very difficult to prove why an employer has suddenly withdrawn hours or withheld new contracts. In the UK, these issues are compounded by the introduction of tribunal fees, cementing the employment tribunal as a no-go area for the vulnerable low-paid.