Ban all zero-hours contracts

Unite delegate and Executive Council (EC) member for women Angela Duerden gave an impassioned speech in support of banning all zero hours contracts.

Angela moved the motion, which was selected to be heard at Labour’s main conference after a unanimous vote in favour at Labour’s Women’s conference last Saturday.

Angela called zero-hours contracts “immoral and exploitative”, adding that they “trap workers in low-paid, insecure work, creating poverty, social exclusion and misery”.

“They create an imbalance of power between employers and employees, with workers having little job or financial stability, not knowing how much they’ll earn from one week to the next,” she noted.

“In this situation it’s difficult to get financial support through benefits when work isn’t available,” Angela went on to say.

She said that while workers do need flexibility to accommodate other commitments, Angela added that there were better ways of providing this flexibility other than through zero-hours contracts.

She gave the example of annualised hours, where the worker gets a guaranteed number of hours per year.

“If the employer can’t find work for those hours the employee still gets paid, they can still pay their rent and still feed their families,” Angela explained. “So it’s flexibility with full employment rights.”

Angela hailed the fact that we now have a new Labour government and she highlighted Labour’s insistence this week that with the party in power “change begins”.

“Well let change begin here, and let’s begin now,” she told conference to applause, reiterating Unite’s call to “ban all zero hours contracts, no loophole, no get out clauses”.

Commenting on the Unite delegation’s position in the back of the conference hall, Angela said, “Unite may be at the back in the dark – but we’ll continue to shine a light for our members”.

Concluding her speech to yet more applause, Angela urged conference, “Support us in shining a light for workers. Give workers stability and dignity.”

The motion was overwhelmingly carried.

By Hajera Blagg

Photo by Mark Thomas