Council’s 600 staff on zero-hours deal

ONE in 10 staff at a Labour-run council are on zero-hours contracts, it has emerged.

The disclosure prompted accusations of hypocrisy after Jeremy Corbyn said he would ban the practice.

More than 600 of the 4,300 staff at Brighton and Hove council do not have guaranteed hours, despite the Labour leader pledging to ban such contracts during the general election campaign.

The party has previously come under fire after it was revealed that some Labour MPS use zero-hours contracts to employ their staff, while other councils run by the party do the same.

Union leaders have promised to fight the practice and have demanded staff be given proper employment rights by Brighton and Hove and others, while the Tories have called the practice “hypocritical”.

The figures were disclosed in the council’s annual report.

Maria Caulfield, the Tory MP for

Lewes, said: “Labour promised the world at the election – but this hypoc- risy shows you exactly what a country led by Labour would be like.”

A second Labour-run council, in Doncaster, was criticised last night after it emerged it is to relaunch a flagship local theatre where the majority of staff will be on zero-hours agreements.

Zero-hours contracts do not give staff guaranteed hours, holiday or sick pay. Some staff like the agreements because it gives them flexibility, while others are left worrying whether they will have work from one day to the next.