Greene King to move Spirit pub employees away from zero-hour contracts

UK based pub retailer and brewer Greene King has announced that it is going to move workers from its acquired Spirit pubs off zero-hour contracts, according to a report by The Guardian.

The company had already moved its staff away from zero-hour contracts before acquiring Spirit in 2015, however a majority of Spirit staff were still on such contracts.

Spirit Pub Company owns chains including Chef & Brewer and Wacky Warehouse. In 2013, it said that most of its 16,000 employees were on zero-hour contracts.

A spokesman for Greene King said: “We will be moving to minimum hours contracts for all colleagues in ex-Spirit pubs over the next year.”

The hospitality sector has come under scrutiny from unions with over a quarter of companies using the zero-hour contracts according to the Office of national Statistics. The number of people on zero-hours contracts had increased by 20% to more than 900,000 last week according to official figures.

Competitor JD Wetherspoon have also that it would also allow 24,000 staff to choose between a zero-hours contract and one offering fixed hours on Monday.

The share price fell 1.18% to 776.23p at close on Tuesday.