Zero Hour Contracts

[lozzy1992]

Hi! I would like peoples opinion on zero hour contracts. This is for my final year dissertation so all help would be greatly appreciated.

For those who have not directly been on a zero hour contract but have an opinion about the subject I am also interested in hearing what you think.

For anyone that is on a zero hour contract would you say your employee rights? Do you get any benefits with your zero hour contract such as annual leave or sick pay? Do you think you are fairly paid in contrast to people on other contracts? Have you had any difficulty with any financial issues from being on a zero hour contract such as obtaining a mortgage or credit?

Do you think the government should do regarding zero hour contracts or unpaid internships?
• Do nothing
• Tighter monitoring
• Ban zero hour contracts altogether

If possible please state your age and where abouts you come from, this information will be anonymous in the report.
Thanks in advance

[factor-fiction]

I am on a zero hours contract and taking all things into account I prefer it to the alternatives for two main reasons,. First, at my age it was proving so hard to compete for jobs with keen, cheaper newly qualified graduates who were 30 years younger than I am). Second, I enjoy the variety of the work and like the fact that I can turn down jobs or make myself unavailable if I want a few days off.

I think jobs like mine on zero hours contracts wouldn't work on any other basis, so i certainly don't think they should be banned.
regulation may be needed though for employers that force you to work when they say but may keep you waiting for days on end without work.

Age mid 50s.
From England

Annual leave- supposedly it's built in to the daily rate so I get nothing in the holidays unless I get a bit of private tuition work.

Sick pay- not sure, but I haven't been off sick in any job for 10 years. The company never mentions it but I think I would SSP.

I have had no issues with it because the mortgage is paid off and I'd built up savings and a pension pot, but I wouldn't have risked zero hours

[factor-fiction]

Missed a bit off there:

I wouldn't have risked zero hours .... when I was buying a house or starting a family

[lozzy1992]

Sorry black cat the unpaid internship is from my other question and shouldn't be in this one. Apart from this I would say it make sense though?

[lozzy1992]

Factor fiction, this is a great help thankyou. Would you mind letting me know what sector and kind of jobs you do please?

[factor-fiction]

Supply teaching- covering for absent teachers on a day by day basis at around 20 schools with a 25 mile radius

[black_cat51]

Do you think the government should do regarding zero hour contracts

For anyone that is on a zero hour contract would you say your employee rights?

for a dissertation, your questions really should make more sense. i know i'm probably sounding picky but i presume you will be using these answers as primary research, and how can you honestly do that when it's not entirely clear what your questions mean?

[lozzy1992]

Apologies BlackCat
What* do you think the government should do regarding zero hour contracts?

For anyone that is on a zero hour contract would you say you know* your employee rights?

It seems Factor Fiction understood, I am glad of even one good response

[boxtops]

Having been on a full-time contract, I retiredfrom the full-time job some months back and am now on a zero hours contract in the health sector. I like it, it gives me flexibility, I work when required. I get no sick pay, nor holiday pay - all it means is I get paid for the work I do, I choose when I do it (apart from when I have to attend at specific times e.g. for meetings). Our hourly rates of pay are on a scale commensurate with the job so a permanent person doing the same job would get the same hourly rate (apart from the fact that they'd get sick pay etc.)

However, like Factor, I wouldn't have wanted this when I had a mortgage - how people who are sole breadwinners manage to finance their lives seems very precarious. We don't get paid if we don't work - how can you ensure your debts are paid and that you can feed your family, on that sort of basis?

Unless factor's suggestion, our rates of pay don't include an element to cover holiday pay, but I did encounter that system years back when I was an agency temp - again you only got paid when you worked, but that pay was elevated to give you some holiday pay element from the agency.

It may be relevant to your study that a lot of people are on fixed-term contracts, lots of companies now only offer contracts for a year (renewable but with no obligation). I was on a 2-year fixed term contract some years ago and found it impossible to get a mortgage until I was made permanent - I know this still applies to many people, in today's uncertain climate.

[Maydup]

We have a fair proportion of people on zero hours contracts where i work and I know we couldn't manage without the arrangement. It allows us to respond to the ebb and flow of the business with staffing levels.

Its rare that a zero hours person gets less hours, but the option is there should we have no work. Mostly they get as many hours as they want.

However i realise that some employers abuse this flexibility and leave people not knowing whether they have work from day to day and play favourites. Some call them up late at night and ask them to work the next morning and if they decline they go to the bottom of the pecking order for the next day. But i put that down to poor management and bullying tactics rather than the zero contract.

Everyone gets minimum 4 weeks holiday, thats statutory along with auto enrolment for pensions. Sick pay is not payable for the zeros where i work but they are equal in every other way.

Mid 50's England.

[boxtops]

Ah, good point re pensions, maydup. Had I not already been taking my work pension, pension deductions would continue to be taken from my pay under my current T&C.

[Old_Geezer]

I disapprove of them because no matter what case an employer can make for them it is affectively harking back to the days when potential employees had to hang around hoping they were picked for work that day. Yes it can suit some to have occasional work passed their way, but that is what temp agencies are for. If they must be allowed then the full implications must be fully clear to the employee signing the contract. I'd be more comfortable with them not being allowed in the first place. It's like the thin end of the wedge of treating the working classes as mere resource to be used as and when it suits rather than a human being who deserves more respect from an employer.

[boxtops]

I think it depends on the T&C, O-G - I don't have to hang around for my work, I know that certain tasks have to be done each week, and I am paid for the hours it takes to do them. Some weeks are less (or more) than others, it depends on the workload.

[woofgang]

As a retired NHS manager, we found them very useful for employees who wanted to work for specific times of the year or were available to work depending upon a partners work pattern. It meant that we only had to CRB (as it was then), occy health screen, do induction training and so on once instead of every time the person wanted to work. They understood that there might not be work available and we understood that they might not contact us if their circumstances changed.
So no, I wouldn't ban them.
As for unpaid internships, again I think they can be useful and a fair exchange of training for work or not.
I am aged 60 and live in hampshire.