Major retailers are using free labour to cover staff shortages, with no intention of offering paid employment afterwards - and the Prime Minister has no idea what is going on.

Employers are exploiting workers by forcing them to do unpaid trial shifts with no guarantee of a job at the end, an MP told the Prime Minister yesterday — but Theresa May appeared oblivious to the common practice.

Sometimes retailers use free labour to cover staff shortages, with no intention of offering paid employment afterwards, SNP MP Stewart McDonald explained in Prime Minister’s Questions. But May was dismissive, responding that the UK already has a national minimum wage and ensures people are paid for the work they do.

McDonald says tens of thousands of people are affected by unpaid trial shifts up and down the UK.

Young people are disproportionately targeted and it could get worse in the run up to Christmas, as people seek seasonal jobs to help cover the cost of the holiday.

The Glasgow South MP said:

“The Prime Minister’s response was not good enough – she needs to support my campaign and her government needs to back my Bill to stop workers being exploited.

“Unpaid trial shifts are common practice across the UK. However, they are exploitative and take unfair advantage of people genuinely seeking work.

Workfare, a policy that was not widely used or known about until the Conservative-led coalition in 2010, is believed to be contributing to the exploitative practice, with hundreds of unemployed people forced to take unpaid placements at retailers like Poundland as a condition of receiving their benefits.

People have been using social media to share their experiences of unpaid trial shifts.

Campaigner Charlotte Hughes said she knew of a young man who worked three five-hour shifts at B&M for no pay, before being knocked off the rota. She likened the practice to ‘slave labour’.

NOT MY SON. #Workfare B&M @boycottworkfare Interviewed my son and had him working thurs, frid and sat on trial all 5hr shifts without pay. He was on the work rotas for today 11 -6.30pm and sat. They phoned him at 10am and informed him he did not have the job. Slave labour.

— Charlotte Hughes (@charlotteh71) November 21, 2017

Responding to Hughes, a woman said her daughter had been forced to work at Poundland for no pay under the workfare scheme. She was promised a job at the end of her placement, which was several weeks long, but it never materialised. Instead the ‘next batch’ of workfare placements were brought in and she was replaced.

Others said they had done shifts in restaurants for ‘some food’ and in highstreet store Next for 1p.

McDonald said the UK government must take a stand on exploited workers. He has written to all MPs calling on them to support his bill to end the practice, which will be debated in March 2018.

The Private Members’ Bill has also been backed by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), the National Union of Students (NUS), the Better Than Zero campaign and the Daily Record newspaper.

A study by Middlesex University and Trust for London, Unpaid Britain (2017), estimates that workers are missing out on £1.2billion in wages — with unpaid trial shifts contributing towards this.

McDonald said:

“Over the Christmas period, it is ­increasingly likely you’ll be served in a shop or a restaurant by someone working an unpaid trial shift.

“All work should be paid fairly and properly, which is why the practice of exploitative, unpaid trial shifts must come to a long overdue end.”

Let’s hope his bill gains traction — and in the meantime, maybe May should learn what the reality of precarious and exploitative work is like for so many people living in the UK.

Charlotte England is a freelance journalist and writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter

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