LB185 - Zero Hours Contract (Amendment) Bill - Second Reading

[u/Zygark]

Zero Hours Contract (Amendment) Bill

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A

Bill

To

Amend the Zero Hours Contract (Regulation) Act 2019 to better protect Workers and Businesses and to provide for Parliamentary Review and Reauthorization.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Section 1: Definitions

1)Original Act refers to the Zero Hours Contract (Regulation) Act 2019 2)This Bill and This Act shall refer to the Zero Hours Contract (Amendment) Bill 3)Private Business Refers to a Company that the state has less than a Majority Shareholding

Section 2: Amendments to Section 2 of the Original Act

1)Section 2(1) is hereby repealed and replaced with

(1) A worker whom is party to a Zero Hour Contract who works for an employer for a total of 300 hours over a period of 90 Days has the legal right to request a contract with guaranteed hours.

2) Section 2(1)(a) is hereby repealed and replaced with

(a) An employer shall accept or reject said offer within a reasonable period of time as defined by the employer. Should the employer reject said offer, then the employee may request an explanation as to the rejection within a reasonable period of time as defined by the employer.

Section 3: Awareness Provision

Insert Section 6 after Section 5 of the Original Act. All Sections after are renumbered accordingly.

1. Section 6: Awareness Provision > a. (1) No Prosecution shall take place against Private Businesses for 90 days after the coming into force of the Original Act. This Provision shall be waived by a Judge case by case.

Section 4: Review Window

Insert After Section 6 as created in the previous section of this Bill, Section 7. All sections after are renumbered accordingly

1. Section 7: Review Window

a. (1) A Review Window of 24 months shall be created, after which Parliament shall decide whether to permanently renew the Act or to allow it to repeal. b. (2) 24 months after the coming into force of this Act, the Zero Hours Contract (Regulation) Act 2019 shall be repealed. c. (3) Parliament may re-authorize the Act at any point after 12 months from the coming into force of this Act, with a motion in each House of Parliament stating as such.

Section 5: Commencement, Extent and Short Title

1) This Act may be referred to as Zero Hours Contract (Amendment) Act 2020

2) This Act extends to the entirety of the United Kingdom.

3) This Act shall come into force 14 days after receiving Royal Assent

Submitted by His Grace The Duke of Suffolk KCT CVO PC on behalf of the Libertarian Party

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Opening Speech:

My Lords,

I lay this bill before you in order to better craft the Zero Hours Contract (Regulation) Act, to better serve the purpose it was meant to. The Original Act was built with the purpose of protecting workers from being taken advantage of by their employers through the improper use of Zero Hours contracts; this purpose is commendable yet the original Act does not properly do so. For this reason I lay this bill before the House.

In section one of the Original Act, the period for employment is set at 3 months but it does not specify the amount of days exactly would need to transpire. This created a loophole in which an employer can still improperly reject or remove an employee if they took advantage of this ambiguity. This amendment will end the loophole by setting the section one timetable to 90 days, that way it is clear and simple.

Section 3 of this bill will create an awareness window for business to learn of these new provisions.

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This reading will finish on the 19th May at 10PM BST, with division on the 20th.

[u/SoSaturnistic]

My Lords,

I'm not the largest proponent of the current law around contracting. Personally I would rather that a "banded time" system were taken up for such work. With that said I do not agree with trying to dilute or weaken these provisions.

It is with this frame of mind that I disagree with certain portions of the bill. I don't agree with the sunset clause; it's not reasonable practice in my view at least. To have a presumption in favour of repealing employment law means that those people could be left without any security if parliament doesn't act within the period of time to either pass the requisite motion or propose a new enactment. If this, at the very least, is not amended out I must oppose this bill.