The gig is up: Trade unions tackling insecure
work
Over three million people – one in ten of the UK workforce –
now face insecurity at work. Not only do they often face
uncertainty about their working hours, they also miss out on
rights and protections that many of us take for granted,
including being able to return to the same job after having a
baby, or the right to sick pay when they cannot work.
This report shows the impact of insecurity at work on
workers themselves, and on the UK’s economy and public
finances. And it reports back from a TUC survey of people
in insecure jobs, enabling them to tell us about their
experience of work in their own words.
Most importantly, the report sets out what policy-makers
could do to ensure that the modern world of work is one in
which everyone can have a decent job – not one of
ever-increasing insecurity. We want policy-makers to:
- help more workers to have voice at work
- upgrade our framework of employment rights to make it
fit for the twenty-first century
- make sure those rights are properly enforced
- ensure that the tax, social security and pensions
systems all encourage employers to offer decent jobs, and
guarantees that everyone has a decent standard of living
when they’re not at work.
Download the full
report
, Shadow Secretary of
State for Business, commenting on the TUC’s ‘The
Gig is Up’ report, said:
“It is a disgrace that 3 million people, nearly one in ten
of the UK workforce, are in insecure employment, according
to the TUC.
“Labour will tackle insecure employment, which tends to
have worse pay and fewer rights - such as zero-hours,
temporary work or low-paid self-employment. Our manifesto
laid out how we would build an economy for the many not the
few by giving all workers equal rights from day one,
banning zero hours contracts, abolishing employment
tribunal fees, repealing the Trade Union Act and
guaranteeing trade unions a right to access workplaces.”
