STUC calls for action to end plight of those in insecure work

The Scottish TUC is calling for an end to contracts below 16 hours and minimum wage age inequality. 


A new STUC report says time, control and trust are the key issues facing workers in insecure employment, leading to further calls for the Scottish government to take action to prioritise employers operating under the government’s “Fair Work” principles and to encourage employers to end precarious working practices.


The findings, in the report Time, control, trust: collectivising in precarious work, expose how workers in precarious employment are exhausted and have little time to spend with their families, or are struggling with multiple jobs to make ends meet.


The report suggests that this has left workers facing a “double burden” of being both time-poor and financially poor, and that this is taking a toll on mental health.


As well as calling for action from employers and from the UK and Scottish governments, the STUC says that unions have a key role to play in bringing workers together.


STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said that while precarious work isn’t inevitable, the danger is that “low wages, intensified work and zero hours contracts are becoming normal practices in parts of our economy thanks to the pressure of welfare cuts and anti-union laws”.

www.stuc.org.uk/files/Policy/Research-papers/precarityreport.pdf