The archbishop of Canterbury has been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged the Church of England uses zero-hours contracts and invests in Amazon, despite his attacks on both during a speech this week.
In a speech to the Trades Union Congress in Manchester, Justin Welby criticised firms such as Amazon for paying “almost nothing” in taxes, and said the gig economy and zero-hours contracts were “the reincarnation of an ancient evil”.
However, it has now been revealed that at least two Church of England cathedrals are advertising jobs on zero-hours contracts, while the church has confirmed that the retailer Amazon is one of its 20 biggest investments worldwide.
Gloucester Cathedral is currently advertising for a porter on a zero-hours contract. Its website describes the role as mostly evening and weekend work with a wage of up to £8.75 per hour.
Norwich Cathedral is looking for a refectory assistant, calling it a “casual zero-hours post” on its website.
The Conservative MP Ben Bradley said: “It’s hypocritical when [he] condemns zero-hours contracts while his churches are advertising zero-hours jobs.”
In a letter to the Times, Rev Ray Anglesea, a United Reformed Church minister who worked on a zero-hours contract in a cathedral bookshop, said the archbishop “might have done well to have put his own house in order before addressing the conference”.
He wrote: “What the Most Rev Justin Welby did not disclose was how many of his cathedrals are zero-hour contract employers and how many cathedral employees have no job certainty, no sick or holiday pay, and no maternity cover.”
Reverend Neal Terry, from the parish of St Mary Magdalene in Longbenton, North Tyneside, said the archbishop did not “exert direct managerial authority” over cathedrals and churches.
“The simple fact is that the C of E is more of a collegiate structure of willing organisations. Every parish, every cathedral, every diocese, religious order and associated religious charity and organisation that is a member of the C of E are independent legal entities, wholly autonomous in their function and operations who decide their own matters of policy and practice,” he said.
“Justin Welby can advise and offer moral authority or the General Synod can approve policy or have provisions passed into law; but he can no more ‘order’ a cathedral what to do than could you or I.”
The Church of England said advice to its parishes on zero-hours contracts was issued in 2013, and “does not reflect the current thinking” of the church. “As a responsible employer, the Church of England is now reviewing its working practices,” it added.
On its investment in Amazon, the church said: “The church commissioners have previously been on the record that we consider aggressive tax avoidance or abusive tax arrangements to be both a business risk and an ethical issue.
“As with other issues, we take the view that it is most effective to be in the room with these companies seeking change as a shareholder. We continue to work with other shareholders to tackle this issue via engagement with companies and their managers.”
During one of his most strident speeches the archbishop attacked the benefits systems and criticised multibillion-dollar firms such as Amazon for “leeching off the public”.
Welby, was given a standing ovation at the TUC conference after the controversial speech in which he levelled criticism at politicians, the government and corporate bosses.
He took a swipe at Amazon for paying “almost nothing” in taxes and said he was pleased the payday lender Wonga had gone bust. He also waded in on the government’s flagship reform programme, universal credit, calling for it to be halted, saying it had left people worse off.
Welby’s remarks came as the Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, attacked Theresa May for the government’s record on welfare during prime minister’s questions, citing the National Audit Office’s June report which said thousands of vulnerable claimants were enduring hardship.
Corbyn said universal credit was “flawed and failing” and cited the government’s own survey which found many families were in rent arrears. “Most of us are well aware of the pain UC is causing when people come into our advice bureaus,” he said. “Universal credit is not making work pay, it is taking money away from families and putting more families into poverty.”
Just hours after Welby had called for the introduction of the benefit to be halted the Guardian revealed that one in six new universal credit claimants were not being paid on time.
Before taking to the stand the archbishop had signalled that his speech could be controversial. He tweeted a link to his blogpost titled: “Is mixing faith and politics worth the risk?” with the tweet: “I’m often told that archbishops should ‘stick to religious and spiritual matters’ and ‘stay out of politics’. I have a feeling today might be another one of those days, so I’m just going to leave this here.”
After his speech, Amazon said it paid “all taxes required in the UK and every country where we operate”.
