Brexit: British workers 'facing explosion of zero-hours contracts and fewer rights'

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy British workers face “cut-rate, bottom-of-the-league protections” after Brexit, with more zero-hours contracts and fewer guarantees over holiday and equal pay, the TUC has warned, as it publishes a damning report highlighting the soaring number of insecure jobs in the UK. open image in gallery TUC general secretary France O'Grady TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said insecure work had become “the new normal for far too many people” and the problem was “getting worse” as Theresa May pushes ahead with a hard Brexit. Britain must not become an offshore island with British workers the poor relation to their European neighbours.” open image in gallery Labour's shadow minister in the business, energy and industrial strategy team, Jack Dromey Labour backbencher Melanie Onn, who tabled a series of amendments to the Government’s bill and introduced her own bill to safeguard workers’ rights derived from EU legislation, said the Tories had a mandate to leave the EU but not to "downgrade the rights of workers". “There is a great risk that without fundamental workers’ rights, which come from the EU, we will see an explosion of temporary, insecure jobs and zero hour contracts," she told The Independent.