Explanations Please

[Coldicote]

I try to follow national and international news but sometimes get a bit lost - perhaps I'm not alone. For instance what are 'zero hours contracts' that Ed Miliband wants to crack down on? Worldwide news makes references to 'pro Moscow separatists' in eastern Ukraine. Are these people from Ukraine or Russia and what sort of separatism are they looking for?

[sandyRoe]

They're people living in Ukraine who owe their allegiance to Russia. They'd like the areas they live in to be part of Russia.

[Graham-W]

Zero hours contracts are where you are not guaranteed any work at all. The employer can call you and say, "Come in Mon and Thurs. No other work this week. Probably none next week also."
You are just at their beck and call whenever they feel they need you.

[sunny-dave]

Zero Hours Contracts - no guaranteed work - just called in as/when needed - often at short notice.

[scooping]

You get a job but they don't tell you how many hours you are required to work in any given week. So you may get a text or call on a Monday asking you to go in for four hours at the agreed rate. Then you might not hear again til, say, Thursday, when they might say can you do a full day starting at nine...

[dannyk13]

A zero hours contract is one between employer and employee where the employer does not have to guarantee any hours of work and the employee is not bound to accept any hours offered.
Moscow separatists are Ukrainians who want unification with Russia. Hope this helps.

[chelle7272]

And you're not obliged to take up the hours offered.

[ummmm]

But not all zero contracts are pee taking. If they have plenty of work then it can work in the employees favour.

[Coldicote]

Many thanks for all these answers. The Ukrainian problem sounds to me like Crimea all over again. I wonder how it came about that they owe their allegiance to Russia without living there. Hope to goodness it doesn't lead to war.

[sandyRoe]

During Soviet times Russians moved there, a class of carpetbaggers. In one of the Baltic States nearly half the population are Russians.

[woofgang]

Its a shame they have been misused. When i woeked in the NHS, we had quite a few qualified people who didn't want set hours or amounts of work. One lady i remember well used to spend time in Hong Kong with her husband. Every time you were re employed with the NHS, at the time, you had to have new CRB, new induction, new occy health process yadda yadda. It took up too much time. having these folk on zero hours contracts meant that they could phone us and ask if they were wanted and we could phone them and offer them work at shortish notice. It worked very well.

[ummmm]

Woof - that's similar to what I did although not through the NHS (private psych hospital) we got paid holiday pay each quarter on our average earnings for the previous quarter. Worked really well when you have young children.