Sally Hunt says employment report must afford flexible workers better protection

She said workers needed to be given much stronger rights, not simply allowed to ask for them. Matthew Taylor announced that his report looking at employment practices should be published in a few weeks.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: 'When it comes to flexibility, too often it is a one-way street. I don't see examples of two-way flexibility. I see people exploited and with no option for recourse. If it is to genuinely be a two-way street then employees need to have clear rights and a contract, not just the option to ask for them.

'Zero-hours and other exploitative contracts stop people from being able to plans their lives on a monthly, or even week-by-week basis. It is quite shocking in this day and age that we allow these kind of practices and for employers to hide behind the pretence that both employer and employee benefit equally from flexibility.'