PRESIDENTS COLUMN

20 STOP ZERO HOUR CONTRACTS A new year and we face the same old problems. Pay talks, attacks on pensions, redundancies, legal challenges and savage cuts on London Underground but we will be trying to do the best for our members. That means fighting for a shorter week, trying to get free travel for all workers and generally improving working conditions. We will also have the added interest of the European elections and the Scottish independence referendum. However, one of the biggest challenges we face is the increased use of zero hours contracts. There are many firms who are now using this method of employment. It is estimated that there could be as many as twenty per cent of workers in the UK ‘employed’ on these contracts. Zero hours contracts are a disgrace, and can be likened to the old method that used to be used on the docks. Then a group of workers would turn up at the docks and the foreman would pick the ‘best’ workers for that day. Obviously this method was open to lots of abuse, not least the foreman getting various perks for picking people. Brown envelopes were no doubt handed round with some regularity! I am not suggesting that is what is happening with zero hour contracts, but it could certainly be open to similar abuses. Workers who are on these contracts have no guaranteed hours of work. This means that do not know, from one week to the next, whether they have any work or not. For instance, they could be sat at home, and receive a phone call telling them to be at place x at such and such a time. This could have serious consequences in the transport industry pertaining to such problems as fatigue. There is no way people can plan their lives under this system. If they do not go then the bosses will just get someone else. Workers with families will suffer nightmares. Do they turn down much needed income, and neglect such things as childcare? Do they put children first, and lose out on a wage? Would the government and right wing press then class them as being ‘workshy’? The arguments by employers are that it gives them more flexibility. This may well be true, but it also gives them total control to pick and choose who they want. Anyone who raises issues such as safety or conditions will not be employed. The only way that that can redress the situation is by hoping that unions could be recognised, and therefore offer them some protection, but employers are unlikely to accept this. There are ways to fight this practice. We can name and shame them, call for industrial action, and use our parliamentary group to raise concerns. John McDonnell MP has already raised concerns in parliament . He pointed out these issues and raised the possibility of a form of blacklisting that these firms could use. We should not think that zero hours contracts are limited to transport and the building industries. Universities and schools are increasingly using this practice. We need to support our fellow trade unionists and fight this despicable attack on workers. Firms like Network Rail, and the TOCS, should be told to stop using contractors who use zero hours contracts. This is an issue that affects us all and we should do everything we can to stop it now! Peter Pinkney President’s column