Part-time council and school staff are being ‘exploited’ and ‘overworked’ as a result of government cuts, Unison has warned.
Findings from a survey of more than 2,600 part time workers in local government and education reveal 39% of respondents work up to two hours of unpaid overtime each week, with almost 10% working five to ten additional hours for no pay.
One fifth of respondents to the Unison survey said they were covering the work of a redundant or vacant post alongside their own job.
‘Part-time workers are the lifeblood of local government and schools and local services would collapse without them. Yet they are facing an all-out assault on their pay, conditions and hours of work,’ Unison head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said.
Part time workers make up 61% of all employees in councils and schools, with nine out of ten being women.
Wakefield said these employees were ‘routinely used to fill full-time gaps in the workforce left by redundancies, but often with no security of contract, hours or income, and no overtime pay’.
‘This survey also highlights the start of a trend in zero hour contracts in councils and the high degree of flexibility required of many part-time workers.
‘This can undermine the very reason for them working part-time in the first place, to care for children and other relatives, domestic work in the home or some work-life balance,’ Wakefield added.
