At Treasury questions on Tuesday Emma told the Chancellor George Osborne that constituents in South Shields no longer felt that a job was a guarantee of financial stability.
Emma raised the case of her constituent Mr Effard, whose is employed on a zero hours contract and does not know how many hours he will be offered week to week. This leaves him unable to plan his finances, and means he is never certain whether he will be able to cover his next weeks’ bills.
Emma told the House:
“My constituent Mr Effard works on a zero hours contract and does not know week to week whether he will be given enough hours to be able to cover his bills. Mr Effard wants to work, but admits that in many ways JSA provided more stability. Will the Chancellor admit that the normalisation of these contracts under his Government means that for people like my constituent, a job no longer guarantees financial security?”
The Chancellor said that the Government was looking at changes to the way zero hours contracts are regulated. But he did not respond to Emma’s point about job security. You can read Emma’s question and the Chancellor’s response in full by clicking here.
There are now over a million people in Britain employed on zero hours contracts, who do not know their hours week to week, or even if they will be offered work at all. Since the Coalition came to power in 2010, the number of people working part-time who say they want a full-time job has risen by 350,000.
This has contributed to the cost of living crisis which has seen the average family £1,600 a year worse off under the Coalition.
Last year a poll found that half the working population believe the Coalition’s economic policies are making them less secure. More than one in seven people on zero hours contracts say their employer does not offer them enough hours to meet their basic living costs.
A Labour government in 2015 would change the law to stop exploitative zero hours contracts, including giving employees the right to demand a permanent contract after they have worked for an employer for six months.