Employers accused of using unpaid shifts to boost profits and exploit workers
MPs, unions and campaigners are demanding a blanket ban on “exploitative” unpaid shift work.
There has been a sixfold increase in three years of complaints about unscrupulous employers demanding workers do shifts for nothing in the hope there will be a job at the end of it.
Often no offer of work is forthcoming – with some firms being accused of using the practice in order to exploit free labour.
Current employment laws allow companies to invite prospective employees to do trial shifts that may, or may not, lead to a job offer.
SNP MP Stewart McDonald has submitted a private members’ bill to “ban exploitative unpaid trial shifts”, claiming that they were “exploitative to workers – particularly young people, students and migrants”.
He said: “If people are going to be offered a trial period where they apply their skills in the hope of securing work then they should be paid fairly and properly.”
A spokesperson for the Unite union said: “The use of unpaid trial shifts, particularly within the bars and restaurant industry, has grown exponentially over the past few years, with employers using unpaid trial shifts as free labour mostly to cover staff absence.
“We need to clarify the legal position for employees and employers alike with legislation which ensures that workers get paid properly.”
The union’s website quotes an unnamed trial shift worker at supermarket chain Aldi as saying: “It is actually slave labour – they use you to get the shop ready for opening time and get annoyed if you make any mistakes.
“They just abandon you and come back moaning that you've not finished the million tasks you were down to do. They then emailed me the next day saying I was unsuccessful and that they can’t provide feedback because of the volume of applicants.”
Colin Borland from the Federation of Small Businesses told the BBC that unpaid shifts are a “valuable part of the recruitment process”, but “shouldn’t cross the line into exploitation”.
Campaign group Better Than Zero – which fights for the rights of workers in precarious employment – last year exposed the Mooboo Bubble Tea company, which was making prospective staff in Glasgow and elsewhere work unpaid for 40 hours, without a guaranteed job.
Under intense pressure, the firm was forced to back down and agreed to pay trainees.
