Thursday, May 10, 2018

The Gig Economy

The number of people working temporary jobs has shot up in Edinburgh in the last year, with one in 10 workers now on a non-permanent contract,  leaving people in the city without job security. 

It’s an increase compared to the 7 per cent of workers in this position the year before, and means Edinburgh has the highest proportion of  temporary workers in the country.

Steve Turner, assistant general secretary for Unite said: “Too many  people are eking out an existence in low paid, temporary, insecure work when all they want is a permanent job. Rather than putting workers on permanent contracts we have seen firms such as Sports Directbase their whole business model on exploitative zero-hours contracts and temporary agency contracts. Workers deserve the dignity of knowing from one week to the next whether they will be able to put food on the table and pay the bills. Ministers need to ban zero hours contracts and proactively tackle  bogus self-employment and the use of umbrella companies, which are fleecing workers out of their hard earned cash while bosses get away without paying their fair share of tax.”

UNISON assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Zero hours contracts may be good for employers, but not for all workers. Many face sleepless nights worrying what their take-home wage will be at the end of every week. Insecure employment is a huge issue in the care sector, with staff  too scared to whistleblow for fear hours will be cut. Bosses should guarantee fixed hours to everyone who wants them - and this should be enforceable by law.”

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/edinburgh-tops-scotland-temporary-workers-12513806

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