Black and ethnic minority women are twice as likely to be on zero-hours contracts as white men, according to a new analysis that accuses businesses of perpetuating ‘structural racism’.
The TUC analysis of 2023 Labour Force Survey data found that 5.9% of women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in work are on zero hours contracts compared with 2.7% of white men in work.
Overall, workers from black ethnic minorities are significantly overrepresented on zero-hours contracts in relation to white workers – by 5.4% to 3.2%.
Women from ethnic minorities are the most disproportionately affected group, followed by ethnic minority men (5.9% and 4.9%).
Zero hours
Libby Purves is wrong: the UK’s employment law is best in class
1.4 million workers face ‘double jeopardy’ of insecure jobs and private renting
White women are also significantly more likely than white men to be on zero-hours contracts (3.7% to 2.7%).
According to the TUC black and ethnic minority workers – particularly women – were more likely to be on the “some of the worst contracts, with the worst pay and conditions”.
The TUC said that Labour’s New Deal for Working People would help to tackle the structural racism which “holds back BME workers” by banning zero hours contracts, the TUC said, pointing out that because zero hours contracts give the employer total control over hours and earnings, workers’ income was “subject to the whims of managers”. This made it hard for workers to plan their lives, look after their children and get to medical appointments.
It was also more difficult for workers to challenge unacceptable behaviour by bosses because of concerns about whether they will be penalised by not being allocated hours in future, the TUC said.
The analysis coincides with the TUC’s Black Workers Conference, where insecure work will be a prominent topic for debate.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said zero-hours contracts were a leading example of structural racism. He said: “They hand almost total control over hours and earning power to managers – making it nearly impossible for workers to plan their budgets and their wider lives.
“It’s time to end the scourge of insecure work once and for all – starting with a ban on zero-hours contracts, as Labour is proposing in its New Deal for Working People.”
Last month, the number of young people on zero-hours contracts reached record levels in the UK with almost three-quarters of all workers on zero-hours contracts are in what the foundation describes as “severely insecure work”, meaning they face contractual and financial insecurity and cannot access workers’ rights and protections. Only 6.1% of the 1.1 million on zero-hours contracts were in secure work, it found, meaning they have access to rights and a regular income.
However, some leading figures from the business community have been keen to defend zero hours contracts.
Alex Hall-Chen, principal policy adviser at the Institute of Directors (IoD), last month said there was a “really valid role for zero-hours contracts, not just for the employer but for the employee” and Rupert Soames, president of the CBI has urged Labour leaders not to introduce measures that would make firms reluctant to take on workers because it was harder to lay them off – what he described as a “European model” of labour market laws.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Browse more human resources jobs
