Zero Hour Contracts

[tamborine]

If you need extra staff to cover a wedding and employ part-timers, whats wrong with that?

Why are they unpopular?

[Cloverjo]

Nothing wrong with using temps like that. Some people are happy to do work in that way if they have other ways of making a living too.
The problems arise if you're relying on a job and the employer decides not to give you any work that week.

[Buenchico]

Your post, Tambo, suggests that only a few 'helper out' staff might be on zero hours contracts but many companies now put all of their non-management staff on zero hours contracts. (e.g. over 90% of the staff in Wetherspoon's pubs are on such contracts). So some staff won't know whether they'll get 50 hours, 20 hours or nothing at all in a given week.

While (as a business-loving capitalist) I'm largely on the side of such employers, even I can understand that not all people who've got regular bills to pay (such as mortgage repayments) enjoy working thay way.

[Buenchico]

^^^thay = that

[Old_Geezer]

Been debated before. If one needs temporary staff then agencies exist that supply them. But treating folk as employees on a, "We'll only use/pay you when it suits us, stick around waiting until we click ous fingers" arrangement is a lack of respect and responsibility to those employees. You'll be wanting them to line up at the gate each morning hoping to be picked next. This is just a modern equivilent. Unions fought hard to put that attitude in the past and give working folk respect not simply be used.

[Old_Geezer]

OUR !

[woofgang]

I have said before that we used to use them in the NHS to get around the cumbersome process of a previous employee as "new" staff where people don't want a contract for regular hours. Provided that both the employer and employee are happy, then there is no problem, its when the employer misuses them that problems arise.

[Peter Pedant]

// While (as a business-loving capitalist) I'm largely on the side of such employers, even I can understand that not all people who've got regular bills to pay (such as mortgage repayments) enjoy working thay way. //

I agree BC
you read about zero hour slavery and think - no wonder there is regulation and lots of it !

You note that the workers are on this and the middle management aren't

and how much money do middle mgt make for a firm ?


[ before I retired I had a conversation with my employer wh went likethis:

me: why don't you fire all the olds and get in the youngsters, and pay them peanuts ?
MD: I cant do that - people like you can do anything and anywhere. The young one turn around and say we haven't been trained for that
me: o really ? can I have a pay rise ?
MD ; no of course not ! I am trying to CUT the wage bill

[ Me: and where's the door ?
The MD pays himself in excess of £200k by the way ]

the union rep confirmed he would get a percent of all the wages he cut from us workers ....

[saxy_jag]

It can also make claiming JSA and other benefits difficult. You never know what work you're going to have. Get 40 hours one week and you then become ineligible for a week, which means your benefits have to be reassessed, during which time you'll probably get them underpaid - usually during the period when you barely have any work at all.

[DaisyNonna]

Complete and utter shambles.
Home tutors employed by local authorities never have the security of knowing if and when they will be employed.
Dealing with problem children (and their families) supplying not only expertise but also in many cases books, paper, writing implements, travel costs, all with minimal backup. Not to mention the time spent filling in forms which get filed and never again see the light of day. Reports, assessments, lesson plans for day, week, term. Risk assessments.
Casual labour? Labour, not casual.

[factor-fiction]

A zero hours contract really suits me because I usually get more than enough work, can sometimes choose between the bets offer available on a day, and can simply say no if I feel like a day or two off. However I do sometimes go a week without pay (in holidays) and my pay fluctuates quite a lot so would not have been able to risk this when we had a big mortgage, household bills and children at home