‘Working people need secure jobs – we must give all workers a Guaranteed Hours Contract’

For far too long, my constituents in Corby and East Northamptonshire have not all had access to good, secure, well-paying jobs.

Too many of them are working far beyond their contracted hours, relying on overtime to make ends meet. And many others are stuck on a zero hours contract, with no certainty on how many hours of work they will get week to week. 

I was proud to stand on a manifesto at the last election that promised to make sure all workers had a guaranteed hours contract – a contract that reflects the hours they actually work.

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I raised this issue on behalf of my constituents, and on behalf of the millions of other workers on insecure contracts across the country, this week at Prime Minister’s Questions.

It is impossible to grow an economy on a foundation of insecure work. People need security to plan their finances, security to plan their lives, and security to build a future for themselves and their families.

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Recently, the retail and shopworkers union Usdaw conducted a survey of their members’ to gather their experiences of working on an insecure contract. 

I found this response from a retail worker particularly shocking:

“I was turned down for a mortgage in July as I did not have guaranteed income to meet the needs of the mortgage! At this time I was on a 20hr contract but working between 35-40 hours. But the mortgage company only take into account your contract. I was turned down and ending up having to leave my rented house and go back to living at home with my mum!” 

How can it be right that someone working for 40 hours a week is unable to get a mortgage and is forced to live with their parents again? As a Labour government, we have to do everything we can to fix this. 

I was pleased to hear the Prime Minister’s reply to my question, where he confirmed once again that Labour is banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, taking measures to limit unscrupulous ‘fire and rehire’ practices, plus making positive changes to parental leave and sick pay.

Workers will begin to benefit from these rights that come as part of the Employment Rights Act in April – and they can’t come soon enough. The Employment Rights Act is a landmark achievement which will be transformative for working people.

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But our work is not done yet – we need to make sure these new rights are implemented properly, particularly on the right to a guaranteed hours contract. This right must apply to all workers, to stop bad employers gaming the system by offering lower hours to avoid having to offer a guaranteed hours contract.

The reference period to measure how many hours you should be offered should be a rolling 12 week period, to stop employers using AI and new algorithmic shift management software to manipulate how many hours they will have to offer.

And there should be no requirements on ‘working regularly’, beyond a simple average of the hours worked during the reference period.

The Prime Minister is also right to point out that the Tories and Reform voted against the Employment Rights Act and the huge uplift in workers’ rights it offers at every opportunity.

It is clear that only Labour will deliver for working people. The Employment Rights Act is already a huge achievement, but we can’t take our eyes off the ball yet. We must keep working to make sure we keep our manifesto promise, and give all workers the right to a guaranteed hours contract.

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