{"id":11366,"date":"2017-02-07T16:40:06","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T16:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11366"},"modified":"2017-02-08T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T10:43:32","slug":"the-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11366","title":{"rendered":"‘The new normal’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Insecure work is becoming more and more common in the UK, according to a new TUC analysis published today (February 7)<\/a>, which found that the number of people on contracts that offer no guaranteed hours and few employment rights has skyrocketed by more than a quarter in the last five years.<\/p>\n

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That brings the total number of insecure workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c defined by the TUC as seasonal, casual, temporary or agency workers, or those on zero-hours contracts as well as low-paid self-employed workers — to an astounding 3m. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one in 10 in the UK workforce.<\/p>\n

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The TUC says that what all these insecure contracts have in common is that they leave working people in the position where their wages can fluctuate without warning; they find it hard to get their basic employment rights respected; they miss out on key protections like sick pay; and they are at the mercy of bosses who can withdraw their hours or even take them off the job with no notice.<\/p>\n

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Sectors<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The situation is more dire in some industries than others, with restaurant and pub waiters making up a fifth of the increase in insecure work since 2011. The number of waiters on insecure contracts has more than doubled over that time, leaving 1 in 4 workers in the sector stuck in insecure work.<\/p>\n

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Education and social care workers each account for a tenth in the growth of precarious work.<\/p>\n

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The sector with the greatest proportion of workers who have no job security or rights is, perhaps not surprisingly, arts and entertainment, in which more than half of all workers in the sector \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 66 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are insecure.<\/p>\n

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But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much more job insecurity than you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think in sectors usually associated with better pay and conditions, such as in land transport \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which includes taxi, lorry and train drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c where 35 per cent of the workforce is insecure, or library and museum services, where 17 per cent of the workforce is insecure.<\/p>\n

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In other words, job insecurity is beginning to spread like a virus, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not stopping anytime soon as Brexit looms.<\/p>\n

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‘Nightmare’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“One in 10 employees on insecure contracts means one in 10 employees wondering whether they’ll be given enough hours each week to pay their rent, or be able to put food on the table if they fall ill,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shadow business secretary Clive Lewis warned.<\/p>\n

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And TUC Frances O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady argued that insecurity at work is becoming \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe new normal for too many workers\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening across new and old industries, with workers forced onto shady contracts whether they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re Uber drivers, bar staff or teaching assistants,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople need jobs they can live on and build a life around. But if you don’t how much work you will have from one day to the next, making ends meet is a nightmare.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow is a working parent supposed to plan childcare when they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the hours they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be working? And how can it be right that in 2017 workers are at the mercy of bad bosses who can just take away all their hours or throw them off the job with no notice?<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe rules that protect workers need to be dragged into the 21st Century,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady added, noting that the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Taylor review<\/a> is a prime opportunity to sort this.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut we also need to get more people into unions,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she went on to say.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers in unionised workplaces are twice as likely to be on a secure contract. So I say to working people: if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not in a union, get some mates together and all sign up if you want a better deal at work.”<\/p>\n

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Brexit worries<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Despite prime minister Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s earlier assurances on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights derived from the EU, emphasising that all rights would be transposed into UK law post-Brexit, critics have warned that such assurances aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t without potential loopholes, which could threaten to make job insecurity in the UK even worse.<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke explained.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government may grandfather all EU workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights across in the Great Repeal Bill but then they can add on what are called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sunset clauses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which means over a certain amount of time these rights can be taken away without having to have a debate in Parliament through statutory instruments,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are enough hard-Brexiteers in the Tory party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like Priti Patel who said she wanted to see 50 per cent of workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights from the EU stripped away \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that makes this scenario entirely possible,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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Accountancy firm PwC today<\/a> (February 7) published the most glowing predictions for a UK economy post-Brexit to date, noting that in the years following 2020, any short-term economic pain from leaving the EU may well have passed. The firm said that by 2050, the UK could be the fastest growing economy in the list of wealthy G7 countries which includes the USA, Canada, France, Germany and others.<\/p>\n

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But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one catch. The accountancy firm said its predictions were based on the fact that the UK had a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bflexible economy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a euphemism for an economy whose labour market is dominated by jobs in which workers have little job security.<\/p>\n

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In other words, according to the firm, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic growth post-Brexit should in part be powered by the very job insecurity that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already spreading now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bode well for UK workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n

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‘Envy of the world’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner argued that a Brexit that works for everyone must not mean a race to the bottom on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe job insecurity that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen grow under the coalition government threatens to be turbocharged post-Brexit if we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t careful,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bStrengthening UK workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with a renewed emphasis on unionised jobs and on sector-level collective bargaining \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is a much better, more sustainable way of growing the economy long-term than slashing and burning wages and employment protections.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnionised workers have stronger job security and higher wages, which helps power the economy with their consumer spending power,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s make the UK the envy of the world in the way it treats its workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the government can make good on this goal by taking immediate steps such as, for example, beefing up enforcement to crack down on bad bosses, supporting trade unions instead of seeing us as the enemy within, and outlawing zero-hours contracts the way New Zealand did last year.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Insecure work is becoming more and more common in the UK, according to a new TUC analysis published today (February 7), which found that the number of people on contracts that offer no guaranteed hours and few employment rights has skyrocketed by more than a quarter in the last five years.     That brings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[486,468,96,389],"wps_subtitle":"3m people now in insecure work","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11367,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11366\/revisions\/11367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}