Labour will ban bosses employing regular staff on zero-hours contracts for any longer than 12 weeks. Ed Miliband said it was 'not good enough' for millions of workers not to know how many hours they would be working from one week to the next. He said a Labour government would give workers the right to demand a 'regular contract if they do regular hours' after three months. Scroll down for video . Labour party leader Ed Miliband announced the zero-hours contract ban to workers at David Brown Gear Systems in Huddersfield this morning . Mr Miliband said it was 'not good enough' for millions of workers not to know how many hours they would be working from one week to the next . Mr Miliband's announcement comes after David Cameron struggled to say if he could live on a zero-hours contract after being grilled by Jeremy Paxman last week. In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, Mr Miliband said: 'If it's not good enough for us, I don't think it is good enough for the people of Britain, and that's why we have got to make this change.' Mr Miliband said there had been an 'epidemic' of zero-hours contracts under the Coalition and dismissed fears scrapping them could force companies to lay off staff. It is estimated there are now 1.8million contracts in the UK that do not guarantee any hours – with as many as one in seven jobs now zero-hours. ONS data shows that 58 per cent of people on zero-hours contracts have been with their current employer for over a year, and that workers on the contracts work 23 hours a week on average. Mr Miliband said workers should be given the right after 12 weeks  to demand 'a regular contract if they do regular hours'. He said: 'I think it goes right to the heart of the election campaign. I don't believe we can build a successful country when working people are facing that kind of insecurity. 'There is an issue about the number of hours, but there is also an issue about the unpredictability of the hours. That's the insecurity people face.' The Labour Party leader  arrived in Yorkshire this morning for a question and answer session with workers on the second full-day of the campaign . He said most businesses did not use zero-hours contracts, but added: 'The trouble is for some businesses this has become the primary way that they employ people and I don't think it's the right way forward for our country. 'Zero hour contracts are just one example of the insecurity of our economy and what has happened over the last five years. David Cameron says it has all been a great success – I'll let the British people be the judge of that.' The Tories have already announced that it would ban exclusivity clauses which stop staff on zero-hours contracts from working for other companies. Under Labour's plan, workers will also be entitled to compensation if shifts are cancelled at short notice. The proposal goes well beyond the recommendations made by the former Morrisons exec Norman Pickavance in an independent review for Labour. He said workers should have a right to request a regular contract after six months' continuous employment and to be given one after 12 months. Critics have warned that company bosses could dismiss staff just before the right to a full contract kicks in. It also risks undermining Britain's flexible labour market which economists claim is behind the recent jobs boom. Jeremy Paxman grilled David Cameron over the number of zero-hours contracts in the UK workforce . But Mr Miliband told Labour activists later today: 'The problem of zero-hours contracts is at the heart of the key question in this election: who does our country work for? 'Does it work just for the rich and the powerful? Or does it work for working people – the people looking for a job, trying to find enough money to support a family, to make ends meet?' Christian May, of the Institute of Directors said zero-hours contracts were used by just '2 per cent of workers' which he said could 'hardly be described as an epidemic'. He added: 'Nobody supports the misuse of these contracts, but demonising and ultimately outlawing them will simply risk jobs and undermine a labour market that has made us the envy of Europe.' John Cridland, CBI director-general, added: 'The UK's flexible jobs market has given us an employment rate that is the envy of other countries, so proposals to limit flexible contracts to 12 weeks are wide of the mark. 'Of course action should be taken to tackle abuses, but demonising flexible contracts is playing with the jobs that many firms and many workers value and need. 'These proposals run the risk of a return to day-to-day hiring in parts of the economy, with lower stability for workers and fewer opportunities for people to break out of low pay.' But TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said 'We need a fairer system that guarantees zero-hours workers decent rights at work and stops them from being treated like second-class employees.'
Labour leader said it's 'not good enough' for staff not to have regular pay . He said workers should get the right to a regular contract after 3 months . Comes after the PM struggled to say if he could live on zero-hours contract .