Closed petition Require employers to offer contracts based on average hours worked

Closed on 18 October 2023

Employees on permanent contracts should be offered a permanent increase of their contractual hours if they are consistently working overtime. Employers should be required to offer a contract reflecting the average hours worked over a 6-month period. Workers should be free not to accept this.

Many companies will only give out contracts for a low number of weekly hours, whilst expecting people to work significantly more hours as overtime. Employers are benefitting from the goodwill of workers but are failing to provide the security that increased contractual hours would bring. Many employees are afraid to confront workplace issues, such as discrimination, due to fear of having their hours cut. Workers should be able to choose between the flexibility of lower hours or the structure of increased hours.