I’m Stewart McDonald, MP for Glasgow South.

I wanted to answer here because I’m currently trying to get a Private Members’ Bill through Parliament which would ban unpaid trial work periods.

Unfortunately, at the moment the law in this area is incredibly grey and with the nature of that workforce meaning that they are often not unionised, the opportunity for testing it in court is often out of their reach.

That’s why I introduced my Bill on this topic. It will make it clear that if a trial period is to be offered then the employer must pay up for that period whether or not a full offer of employment is made. I would therefore urge you to lobby your local MP to attend the debate on March 16 2018 and vote in favour of my Bill banning unpaid work trials.

You can find out more about the Bill here, and find out who your MP is here.