Big leap in zero hours contracts

Up a third in North East despite national fall

NORTH East England has been revealed as the zero hours contract capital of the UK.

Figures show 3.7% of workers in the region – nearly 44,600 – are on contracts that don’t guarantee a minimum number of hours in their main job.

The number has rocketed by nearly a third in the past year, according to Office for National Statistics data.

Billy Coates, GMB Regional Secretary said: “Tens of thousands of people across our region head to work each day not knowing what their hours will be, or even if they will be told to go home when they get there.

“That’s no way to live – how can you plan for the future, or even know if you can pay the rent or buy food?” Next on the list are the South West (3.6%) and the East Midlands (3.4%). Overall, there were 883,000 zero hours workers in the UK in the three months to June, a fall of 20,000 year on year. It came as ONS figures showed workers endured a 0.5% real terms wage cut in this period. Wage growth picked up from 2% to 2.1% in that time, but that was outstripped by inflation, at 2.6%. The weak growth in wages comes despite unemployment falling by 57,000 to 1.48 million in the three months to June, and the number in work jumping by 338,000 to 32 million.