The industry’s lobby group has warned that changes to guaranteed working hours could affect more than half of retail jobs, making it harder for stores to hire people, especially young people for part-time jobs.
Starting in April, the Employment Rights Act will give workers more rights when it comes to sick pay sexual harassment, parental leave, and trade union recognition.
Next year, people who are currently on zero or low hours contracts will get more rights, such as guaranteed hours flexible work hours, pay for short-notice shift cancellations, and the ability to fire and rehire people in most situations.
But the government still hasn’t decided how many hours a week a low-hours contract can have or how many weeks of regular work patterns can be looked at to figure out guaranteed hours.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which speaks for most of the big UK retailers says that protections for guaranteed hours should only apply to contracts of eight hours a week or less. The reference period should be at least 26 weeks, or even better, a full year. It says this would better reflect how people work during different seasons and make sure that reforms fix real problems without hurting jobs across retail.
Helen Dickinson, the BRC’s CEO, said, “Flexible retail jobs are a key part of how millions of people are able to keep working.” Retail is the UK’s largest private sector employer and offers jobs for students who want to earn money while they study, parents who need to balance work and childcare, and people with health problems. These part-time jobs are not only important, but also needed all over country.
Retailers agree that job security should be improved, but how the Employment Rights Act is put into action will be very important. If reforms see flexibility as a problem instead of something workers choose to do, there is a risk of fewer job opportunities and less access to work. The government needs to find the right balance between going after real bad behavior and protecting the flexible roles that make retail jobs possible.
The BRC said that 55% of retail jobs are part-time, which is much higher than the UK average of 33%.
It said that workers value flexibility. A survey of 2,000 adults by Opinium for the BRC found that 52% of UK adults think being able to change their work hours to fit their lives is important. It said that the retail sector has jobs that let people who are studying, taking care of family, or dealing with health issues stay in work longer.
However, Usdaw, the union for shop workers, said that its evidence showed that the new rights would be most helpful for people who work in the most unstable jobs, especially women and disabled workers.
Joanne Thomas, the general secretary of Usdaw, said, “Retail jobs are known for having bad working conditions and retail workers really need basic rights at work, especially when they work for companies that don’t have unions.” So, the act is very important to workers and, most importantly, it protects good employers from being undercut by the worst employers who take advantage of workers.
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