Lacking the protections of staff on contracts, victims of bullying in the gig economy risk everything if they speak up

“I’d always heard about other people getting bullied in zero-hours jobs. But I didn’t take it seriously until it happened to me.”

Josh*, 36, works in TV production as an assistant. And for a long time everything in his career worked well. But being on a zero-hour contract meant there was no way to defend himself when things took a turn for the worse.



Without the guarantee of work, freelance and zero-hour workers risk everything when they speak out

“When my supervisor saw that I was friends with the person above him, he started being aggressive towards me,” he says. “He’d constantly try to undermine and humiliate me, and would talk down to me in front of other colleagues. He would make snide comments about what I was wearing and what I was eating. One time he told me to do a task, which I did straight away. But then he told me off, saying I shouldn’t have done it and denied he’d ever told me.”

“It lasted for six months. But I was so scared of losing the job, I didn’t feel I could say anything back. One day, I had a personal issue to deal with, and I could tell he was deliberately trying to provoke me and give me a hard time. In the end, I started crying. He’d pushed me to that point.”

For Josh’s bully, however, there was no comeback. “There was no one I could talk to about it. In a normal job, there’d be an HR department and procedures for dealing with bullying. But in this job there was none of that, and no one else could see what was happening. If I complained, they’d just get rid of me.”



The rise of zero-hours contracts and the gig economy is likely to have an impact on workplace bullying. The relative job security afforded by permanent contracts can make it easier for victims to come forward and lodge complaints. But without the guarantee of work the next day, freelance and zero-hours workers risk everything when they speak out about mistreatment.



“You feel disposable and that you should be grateful for getting any work,” Josh explains. “I rely on my contacts, so I felt that I had to just let this guy bully me. I didn’t want to get a reputation as being someone who causes trouble.



“It’s like dating someone, rather than being in a relationship; you don’t feel settled and you’re always trying to impress.”



Overall, bullying at work appears to be on the rise in the UK. In the late 1990s, a survey found that it occurred in just 3% of workplaces. But this figure rose to 7% in 2004. Then, in 2011, Unison reported that 60% of workers in the public sector had either been bullied themselves, or had witnessed it happen to someone else at work. But worryingly, more than half claimed they’d be “too scared to report mistreatment”. And the rise of zero-hours contracts can only make that figure worse.



The latest findings suggest there are now nearly 1 million people on insecure contracts, yet little research has been done into the impact of such contracts on their wellbeing. In 2015, Acas received more than 20,000 calls from people seeking advice on bullying, harassment and abuse at work, on a range of different contract types. And its report [pdf] noted that job insecurity can “contribute to a climate conducive to negative behaviours, including bullying”.



“The imbalance of power is a big thing that came out in our analysis of calls to our helpline from zero-hours and agency workers,” says Adrian Wakeling, a senior policy adviser for Acas. “Typically, if they wanted to assert a right of any kind, or challenge something, they often felt they couldn’t because they would just get less hours of work.”



“People on zero-hours contracts don’t have the basic protections the rest of us enjoy, to be able to challenge mistreatment such as bullying,” says Hannah Reed, a senior employment rights officer at the TUC. “Individuals are often fearful to raise concerns about mistreatment, in case they are fired on the spot – or more likely their phone will simply stop ringing and they won’t be offered any more work. The existence of employment tribunal fees also means that many people on low pay cannot afford to enforce their rights, even if they’re brave enough to raise the issue.”



One person who is trying to understand what lies behind the figures is PhD student, Leighann Spencer. She’s developed an app which allows employees to track their experiences, which will form part of her research.



“Workplace bullying is an issue of power – and often people are bullied by their manager,” she says. “So if you’re on a zero-hours contract, you could be less able to properly defend yourself. If you’re being bullied at work, that has a serious detrimental effect on your emotional wellbeing. People can start to get very anxious about going to work and that, in itself, can heighten your ability to notice those sorts of behaviours.



“Often these things are left to fester, so they just get worse and worse. One thing that I’d absolutely recommend is to keep a record of it, because it definitely helps when it comes to making a complaint.”



You’re fired! How to get rid of workplace bullying | Stefan Stern Read more

It’s not just people on zero-hours contracts who have limited ability to defend themselves against bullying. Freelancers and agency workers, too, may feel the need to keep quiet about mistreatment or risk losing their income.



Adam*, a freelancer in the tech sector, has experienced this first hand. “On one job I was booked to work three days working closely with a colleague,” he says. “When I arrived I was catching up with some people and handing over a project I’d been working on the day before. But my colleague had apparently been waiting for me in the next room and could see me through the window.



“All of a sudden he burst out the door, stormed across to me and unleashed a verbal tirade, aimed directly at me. He was ranting about how long he’d been waiting, how unacceptable it was. All whilst I was trying to manage a junior colleague and in full view of the head of the company.



“I was fighting an inner battle between shouting back, hitting him in the jaw, or bursting into tears out of shock. On top of this, I then had to spend the next three days working one-on-one with this same guy.



“I later heard that it had been discussed by the management who’d decided never to work with him again. But no-one checked up on me, my mental health, anything of the sort. I was left in a confined space with the person who’d verbally abused me, working three very long days.”



Most experts agree that help and protection for workers in the gig economy is desperately lacking. Employment lawyer Philip Landau, of Landau Law Solicitors, says: “As a self-employed person you have very limited employment rights.”



“As an employee, if you were to feel forced to resign as a result of the unfair treatment, you may have a potential claim for unfair dismissal.” But he explains: “There is no such claim when you are self-employed. You can, however, bring a claim for discrimination under the Equality Act, regardless of your employment status. The relevant protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.”



And the TUC’s advice? “The best protection that anybody on a zero-hours contract has against bullying is to join a trade union,” Reed says. “Trade unions will cover the cost of employment tribunal fees and make sure members continue to have access to justice.”

* Names have been changed to protect identities



Looking for a job? Browse Guardian Jobs or sign up to Guardian Careers for the latest job vacancies and career advice