The concept of zero-hours contracts is one that has proved to be emotive, especially when the term “exploitative” is put before it. Nobody wants employees to be exploited.
In hospitality, there is a pool of casual workers, many of them student who are free to not work during exam time. There is a flexibility on both sides that benefits industries such as ours.
There definitely should not be a situation where someone cannot work for another establishment but is not guaranteed hours, but Hospitality Ulster’s concern is that an emotive term is being used as catch-all for different working patterns.
Minister of Finance Dr Caoimhe Archibald spoke of “genuinely casual” work while outlining her Good Jobs proposals, but the industry needs details; what does “genuinely casual” mean?
One of the more frustrating aspects of the development of the Good Jobs proposals has been the exclusion of Hospitality Ulster from the Labour Relations Agency’s Engagement Forum, despite repeated requests for involvement.
We know that there was a prior public consultation, but given the Forum’s exclusion of key industry stakeholders, we believe the bill now requires further consultation and co-design with the industry, with the exclusive LRA Forum pushed to the sideline where it belongs.
The hospitality sector has shown its commitment to the provision of good jobs repeatedly over the years.
Despite the economic hardships the sector has endured, from a lack of Covid supports to the highest business rates in the UK, Hospitality Ulster has partnered with the FE curriculum hub based at Belfast Met and the Department for the Economy to deliver courses for existing hospitality staff to upskill and for prospective employees to enter the sector, as well as piloting initiatives that have engaged primary school pupils, the long-term economically inactive, and created employment pathways for ex-offenders and people aged over 50.
While we are committed to training and upskilling both existing and prospective staff, we also take their wellbeing seriously and have developed our Wellbeing Promise, a commitment by employers to develop their staff, provide a work-life balance, and support their mental health.
We have done all this despite the Apprenticeship Levy, which requires employers to contribute 0.5% of their payroll without a guarantee that the monies will be allocated to apprenticeship programmes within Northern Ireland.
Imagine what we could if this cost were removed and allowed us to fund our own training; imagine what we could do without pressures like the highest energy costs in Europe and the highest business rates in the UK on us.
We have shown the ability to co-design opportunities for employees with the Department for the Economy in the past.
If we are trusted enough to develop such initiatives with the Government, then surely, it’s only reasonable that our voice be heard and taken into account once again.
- Colin Neill is chief executive of Hospitality Ulster