COMPANIES are using the pandemic as an excuse to cut jobs and are exploiting workers’ fears over redundancy by imposing contract changes which have a detrimental effect on work-life balance, experts have warned.
Dr Rona Beattie, Professor of Human Resources Development at Glasgow Caledonian University, believes there is “absolutely no doubt” that some firms are breaching employment regulations under the guise of Covid-19 contingency planning.
She says there is evidence that companies are re-negotiating contracts affecting pay, shifts and conditions or simply imposing changes while staff are facing increasing pressure to continue working after shifts end.
British Airways is among the major firms which has faced criticism for apparently putting pressure on staff to accept worse pay and conditions or face redundancy.
READ MORE: Prestigious hotel tells hundreds of staff they are at risk of redundancy
Campaign group Better Than Zero says other issues which have come to light include forced use of holidays and said it was also seeing an increase in health and safety breaches.
Dr Beattie predicts there will be an “explosion” of research looking at the impact of home working on health and wellbeing saying while many have reaped the benefits, for some it has intensified the working day.
She said: “There is little doubt that airlines, aviation, hospitality, tourism and retail (which was already suffering due to online shopping) has been especially hard hit.
"However, the danger is if they pare their workforce’so much in short term will they be able to respond effectively to any economic upturn?
"Whilst difficult to prove, I think some organisations are using the pandemic to cut jobs and/or restructure and/or propose change in future contracts, including pay and how many hours are worked, for new staff and even returning staff.
READ MORE: Scottish bus chief steps down and reveals job cut fears
“I’ve heard of examples where people have been asked to do split shifts. You might work two hours in the morning, when it’s a bit of a quiet time, then you come out again at 5pm at night, that type of thing.
“The other thing I’m seeing is employers saying if a job comes in – say it’s a repair – and it takes you past your normal finishing time, some of them are saying, you have to work that extra half an hour to get that finished for the client.
“That happens already, particularly in hospitality. I’m hearing of people – and I won’t name the companies – moving from a working on period of 45 minutes to two hours. So how do people manage work-life balance and caring responsibilities and why should you be giving your employers two hours of your free time?”
She says for some people the shift from office to home has significantly increased workloads while companies are saving on office and utility costs.
READ MORE: Redundancies loom for Glasgow staff when furlough ends, says councillor
She said “Companies are not just getting the benefit of increased productivity, they are saving money on their premises.”
Dr Beattie expressed some reservations about the extension of a government scheme which will see employers given grants to take on trainees.
She said: “My concern is that some companies may use it for cheap labour and job substitution, as I observed in some companies with the Youth Training Scheme.
“In contrast other employers genuinely used it to train young people with a good chance of employment at the end.”
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