Pressure group calls for guaranteed hours

Workers should be guaranteed at least 16 hours’ work every week to end “widespread insecurity” in the UK, a local campaign group is arguing.

The Living Wage Foundation says workers should also be given at least four weeks’ notice before changes in their shift patterns.

It says around one in six workers in the UK is in low-paid and insecure employment, working on unpredictable hours and pay or short-term contracts. The organisation is urging employers to sign on to its Living Hours pledge, with minimum hours guaranteed across their headcount.

Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, called the measures “ambitious but achievable”.