Scotland’s largest trade union body has expressed alarm over a sharp rise in workers on zero-hours contracts in Scotland which the UK government has pledged to outlaw.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows the number of people employed on a zero-hours contract in Scotland over the last three months rose by 16,000, or 20%, from 79,000 to 95,000.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has branded the trend a “shameful failure”, claiming employers are behaving without fear of being challenged.
The information further shows that, over the last year, the increase in zero-hours contracts Scotland was 2.5 times the increase in the UK.
An assessment by the UK Government found that one in three insecure workers reports an average loss of more than £3,000 per year from cancelled shifts and incurred costs.
Based on these figures, the STUC estimates that the cumulative impact on loss of pay for workers in Scotland totals £285 million per year.
STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “The 20% rise of workers in Scotland on zero-hours contracts represents a shameful failure of our labour market and employers need to be taken to task for acting with such impunity.
“These contracts tilt the power balance in the workplace entirely in favour of the bosses, trapping workers in a cycle of insecurity and precarity.
“With the Employment Rights Act set to crack down on the practice by next January, it’s clear there’s a race to the bottom approach from some companies to exploit as many workers as possible before the reforms take hold.
“We’re clear that the Act must be delivered in full. Working people can ill-afford political dilly dallying while employers in Scotland increasingly abuse zero-hour contracts.
“Let’s be clear: good workplaces have nothing to fear. However, bad employers are being put on notice that unions are organising and won’t permit any further erosion or degradation of our working rights.”
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