More than a million people still on zero-hours contracts

Figure up despite Labour pledge to ban 'exploitative' practice

- ALICJA HAGOPIAN

More than 1 million people in the UK are on zero-hours contracts, new data has revealed, despite Labour’s pledge to eliminate the “exploitative” contracts last year.

Some 1.17 million people were on zero-hours contracts, meaning that they are not guaranteed any minimum working hours by their employer, between January and March of this year.

The only period on record when more people in the UK were on zero-hours contracts was between April and June of 2023, when 1.2 million workers were in such roles.

Labour ushered in a plan to offer guaranteed working hours as part of its Employment Rights Bill, which is currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords.

As a result, experts expected that bosses would shy away from zero-hours contracts; but in fact, the opposite has happened, with a 12.5 per cent increase in the past year.

“The law is likely to be passed later this year, and we had expected to see the start of a long-term decline of zero-hour contracts in the UK,” said Rebecca Florisson, analyst at the Work Foundation. “But this marked increase may signal some employers are resistant to dropping zero-hour contracts ahead of new legislation being introduced.”

The figures are a concern, with the UK also having 106,000 fewer employees on the payroll last month compared to April 2024, according to new ONS statistics.