Key information
Request reference number: MGLA110121-3610
Date of response:
Summary of request
Your request
- Any action the current mayor or his assembly has taken to abolish zero-hours contracts or to have this topic debated by lawmakers or influencers including petitions, working in conjunction with unions, for example.
- If he has raised this topic with unions, which union takes the strongest stand and action against these contracts and protects zero-hours employees the most regularly?
- Has he raised this topic with the National Education Union? and:
(a) Is he aware that teachers without their own laptops or cars (unable to afford them as zero-hours workers on low income) are being asked to travel on public transport in to school to teach during lockdown?
(b) Is he aware that London schools do not have enough laptop stock and councils are either unaware of the problem or unable to help and that the digital divide has not narrowed since the first lockdown?
(c) Could he open local libraries or local furloughed businesses for such teachers to teach from to avoid the exposure to the virus incurred through taking public transport
in order to get to school? When 1 in 30 have the virus it does not seem sensible to have more people congesting public transport.
Our response
The GLA does not use zero-hours contracts. As set out in The GLA Group Responsible Procurement Policy, we will seek fair employment practices by:
- Establishing the Mayor’s Good Work Standard with employers as a key part of our dialogue with suppliers, encouraging them to join the scheme and requiring that all suppliers have fair terms of pay, including the London Living Wage, to the extent permitted by law.
- Working with our suppliers to understand (and regularly assess) the terms on which people working in our supply chain are employed and to ensure they are not improperly exploitative or unlawful. We will work with suppliers to ensure that our service requirements do not result in the inappropriate or exploitive use of zero-hours contracts for low paid, low skilled roles, or in any other employment practices that exploits people working in our supply chain.
The Mayor has met with Unions; the Mayor’s diary is public and is published on our website. However, the diary does not record detailed meeting content and meetings may cover a variety of topics.
Although sent after your request was received and not strictly in scope of your request, the Mayor wrote to the Secretary of State on 21 January 2022 regarding the digital divide and laptops for pupils as mentioned in this press release about the Digital Mission.
If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting
reference MGLA110121-3610.