Governments brings new reforms for agency and zero-hour workers in the gig economy

The government are bringing in new legislation which will offer better protection to workers on zero-hour contracts, agency employees or gig economy workers.

These workers will need to be told about their employment rights, like eligibility for sick leave, on their first day in a new role. They can ask for more predictable hours, though they may not receive them.

The reforms arose from a review led by Matthew Taylor, a former aide to ex-PM Tony Blair and chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts.

According to ministers, the new legislation will:

• close a loophole that had allowed agency staff to be paid less than permanent employees
• ensure firms will have to provide a “statement of rights” on the first day of a person’s employment, setting out what paid leave they are entitled to, including for illness, maternity and paternity leave
• increase the maximum fine employers face at a tribunal from £5,000 to £20,000, if they are found to have demonstrated “malice, spite or gross oversight”
• ensure that companies will have to calculate holiday pay based on 52 weeks, as opposed to 12 weeks, so people in “seasonal or atypical roles get the paid time off they are entitled to”

Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “Today’s largest upgrade in workers’ rights in over a generation is a key part of building a labour market that continues to reward people for hard work, that celebrates good employers and is boosting productivity and earning potential across the UK.”

However, Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: “The right to request guaranteed working hours is no right all.

“Zero-hour contract workers will have no more leverage than Oliver Twist. ”

“Unless unions get the right to organise and bargain for workers in places like Uber and Amazon, too many working people will continue to be treated like disposable labour,” she added.

Matthew Fell, chief UK policy director at the CBI, said: “[Businesses] welcome a new law giving all workers the right to request more predictable working hours, which will help to facilitate the conversations that are essential to ensuring flexibility benefits both parties.”

Time and Attendance UK Software – the flexible option for temporary staff management

With these reforms, it is more important than ever that businesses stop relying on manual processes to record time and attendance.

A system from Time and Attendance UK can help with many of the results of this new legislation.

For example, monitoring the pay of agency workers and zero-hour workers to make sure it doesn’t drop below permanent employees working the same hours is easy using the shifts/flexitime option offered by our software.

Administrators can specify the hours used to calculate the flexitime balance and users can view their current flexitime balance and request adjustments to their balance. Flexi adjustments can be made for any day, either to change the existing balance or to replace it with a new value. Workers paid on an annual contract basis can receive reports stating how many contracted hours they have yet to work.

Companies can use fingerprints, hand geometry, smart-cards or a mobile app in order to record their clocking times.

If you want to find out more about the range of affordable, reliable solutions provided by Time & Attendance UK, just contact our dedicated product team, they’ll be more than happy to answer any question you might have.