Zero-hour workers given the boot at Hackney leisure centres
Clissold Leisure Centre. Picture: Ken Mears - Credit: Archant
Zero-hour contract workers at Clissold Leisure Centre are devastated after bosses scrapped all their shifts without warning.
What’s more, they say the move could hit “several hundred” casual staff at Better-run centres across east London.
Four dumped workers contacted the Gazette to say they had been told by the general manager there was no more work because GLL, the non-profit company that runs Better, had “overspent tremendously” – by millions. A spokesman said this was “not a message we have given staff”.
The group said up to 35 workers at each of the dozens of leisure centres across the east – including three in Hackney – have been left without shifts, “with barely any time to grasp the sudden threat of the situation”.
One of them said: “On April 5 I arrived at work and was called into the manager’s office, where I was told ‘there’s going to be cutbacks because we have no money – the entirety of the east region is being cut back’. It had been rumoured for weeks but this was the first time I was told anything. There was no formal letter or email sent to staff.”
Another said the same thing happened to him on the same day, while someone else was given the news by text message.
They say the “royal screw over” has left them with no time to find new jobs, and with one pregnant and two more caring for young children, it’s the last thing they need.
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“It feels like a malicious set-up,” the letter said. “For most people it is already a constant struggle to make ends meet month to month.”
A GLL spokesman confirmed casual workers were not being offered as many shifts, but said the need for casual workers came in “peaks and troughs”.
He said: “Staff deployment is continually reviewed in line with the needs of the service and customers.
“We are not making any redundancies at Clissold and will be extending opening hours and offering more casual hours while London Fields Lido is closed for repairs. All our staff receive London Living Wage, and can access casual hours in other centres where available.”
