Frequently Asked Questions

Where an organisation’s core team is small (and well within the 50 employees limit for the streamlined GBC accreditation) but the nature of their business means they have a high number of no guaranteed hours, zero hours, minimal hours, temporary, or occasional workers that takes them above 50 employees, our position is this:  

• The organisation should count and tell us the individual number of people paid through their payroll when registering with our portal; so that will include those on no guaranteed hours, zero hours or other minimal hours contracts (e.g. 8 hours per week, but where flexibility is required to work additional hours in excess of 20% of normal hours to meet demand), as well as occasional workers.  

• We ask for each individual person to be counted, not FTE’s (Full time equivalents). 

• This does not include freelancers, where you are procuring and paying for the services of an organisation/individual for professional services. 

• Our first 5 components MUST be applied to the total number of all workers, not just the core, permanent team.  So, they must all be paid the Real Living Wage and have fair hours and contracts, experience employee wellbeing, representation and diversity and inclusion.  These may be worked out in different ways for different groups of workers as befits the situation, but all of the GBC components must be applied to everyone on your payroll.  

• Regardless of the size of your organisation, we expect all our ‘Fair Hours and Contracts’ conditions to be complied with and applied to all of the individual people on your payroll, regardless of their contract type (for example permanent, temporary, no guaranteed hours, zero hours, minimal hours, other).  This means giving at least two weeks’ notice of shifts scheduled and paying them in full if cancelled with less than 2 weeks notice.  Workers must understand their employment rights, face no penalties for declining shifts or requesting more fixed hours and have annual meetings to review actual hours worked for potential adjustments to their contracts.

• However, an organisation should contact us or add in the comments box if they employ a very high number of people for very occasional employment.  (For example, a football club who employs many people on a casual, seasonal basis to work some match days or a charity that uses zero hours contracts to cover sickness or leave for essential services or very occasional fundraising events.)  We want to ensure the fee you pay is fair, and can support you around how a company with a high number of staff working flexible hours manages the questions for larger companies, including pay gap reporting and reference to reporting to a Board of Directors.   

• Please also contact us if you’re unsure – we want to make sure we accurately capture the size of your operation and that your practices cover the support and well-being of all your staff, but also ensure the cost of accreditation is fair.