Fast growing Frasers Group has confirmed to MPs that two-thirds of its retail workforce are still on zero-hours contracts. 

The admission came to light as Frasers Group, which is a major high street retail employer with brands including Sports Direct and upscale Flannels, answered to a parliamentary body as the government aims to introduce new legislation designed to limit their use.

The MPs, who form the parliament’s business and trade select committee examining plans to strengthen protection for employees, were told that 11,500 Frasers’ staff were on such contracts, reported The Guardian newspaper.

The contracts mean workers aren’t guaranteed weekly working shifts, and don’t receive compensation even if shifts are changed at the last minute.

The MPs also heard that 4,000 of the 5,200 people employed at the group’s main warehouse in Derbyshire are agency workers who can be let go without notice. 
The report noted that the company had promised MPs over eight years ago it would move them to permanent contracts.

The testimony came from Andy Brown, chief people officer at Frasers Group, who admitted the pace of change was “certainly not fast”, with an average 200 people a year shifting from agency to permanent contracts over the past three years.

Brown said Frasers now tried to offer those on zero-hours contracts at least 12 hours a week and, in the past year, had offered an average 16 hours a week to those workers as technology enabled better planning. He said managers were able to give a month’s notice of potential shifts and were asked to give at least two weeks but could give less without compensation.

Frasers agreed with the “principles of protection for those on low or zero-hours” contracts, Brown told the hearing, and had tried to improve conditions for these important members of its workforce. “We don’t see a benefit if those on zero-hours contracts are dissatisfied,” he added.

The government had pledged to ban the contracts, but its employment rights bill instead includes a right to guaranteed hours based on a worker’s shifts over a three-month period.