13 May Zero Hour Contracts: Should people with Zero hours contracts be counted as being unemployed?
In the UK, zero-hour contracts are controversial. British business leaders have supported them, stating that they provide a” flexible labour market”.
If you hold a Zero-hour contract, depending on your situation, you may feel like the most insecure, unsure and vulnerable people in the workforce.
The Number of people on zero-hour contracts has exploded in the last decade. This means that a growing number of people within our workforce do not have guaranteed minimum working hours. So, does this mean that you’re unemployed, part time employed or just out of work? And who does this benefit?
According to research from the Trades Union Congress, zero-hour contracts have rights just as any other employment contract
Zero-hour workers still have statutory rights, including the national minimum wage, paid holiday and rest breaks
But some of the rights available to workers, like the right to statutory maternity pay or sick pay depends on you earning more than £112 per week from one employer. That can be hard to meet for most zero-hours workers.
And a lot of the time, the problems zero-hours workers face are practical, not legal
According to a union member, people on zero-hour contracts should be added to the unemployment figures.
“Strictly speaking, these people are not in work, they are at the mercy of their employers. They can’t get a loan, can’t get a mortgage, find it hard to rent property etc”
“The only people that gain anything from zero-hour contracts are the employers”.
So what is a Zero Hour contract?
Zero-hour contracts or bank contracts as they are called is a binding agreement between employee and employer that allows you to work only when you are needed by the employer.
To explain further, let’s compare Zero hours to an ordinary employment contract.
An ordinary employment contract is an agreement between an employer and an employee, where certain core terms of employment are critical to the relationship.
For example, the employee must turn up for work, the employer must provide work, and the employee must work a set number of hours, normally about 40 hours per week, with a one-hour break for lunch.
An ordinary employment contract gives the employee security that he or she will get work and get paid for 40 hours per week. It gives the employer the security of knowing that the employee is there to do the work and creates an employment relationship giving the employee quite extensive employment rights under employment legislation, such as the right to maternity leave.
Zero hours contracts remove all this.
The aim of zero hours contracts, which are sometimes known as casual contracts, is not to contract with, and pay, individuals to work a set number of hours per week, but to use and to pay individuals only as and when required.
People on zero-hour contracts are more than twice as likely to work night shifts and are paid a third less an hour than other workers, the TUC says.
After polling 3,287 workers 300 of them zero-hour staff it concluded the “exploitative” system should be banned.
It says the flexibility such contracts offer is only “good for employers”.
But the government said a ban would “impact more people than it would help”, arguing zero-hours worked well for students, carers and retirees.
“They provide flexibility for both employers and individuals, such as carers, students, or retirees,” a business department spokesman added.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said, “the vast majority” of people on zero-hours contracts “want out”.
“Zero-hours workers regularly work through the night for low pay, putting their health at risk, and many are facing the constant uncertainty of not knowing when their next shift will come,” she added.
Flexibility or insecurity?
The Trades Union Congress research is likely to reignite the debate over zero-hour contracts.
While the casual employment contracts don’t oblige employers to provide a minimum number of working hours, they don’t oblige employees to accept any of the hours offered by their employer either.
Workers on zero-hours contracts are still entitled to statutory annual leave and the national minimum wage.
Zero-hour contracts do come with much controversy, as many people say it provides them with some level of flexibility, such as students, parents and other individuals with caring responsibilities.
Louis Amidu, an international student from Ghana, works at a restaurant as a kitchen porter.
Amidu, who attends University of Westminster, came to the United Kingdom to pursue a degree in Bio-medical engineering. He says a Zero hours contract is ideal for him, as he will need to be flexible in his studies
“It was a bit difficult to find a job when I first came to this country, and finding what I wanted to do was even more tricky as I came in on a student visa, and you’re only allowed to work a mere 20 hours”
“most of my interviews and job offers in my field of study was looking for someone that can either work full-time or had British citizenship”
Nursing Assistant and single mother of three Hannah Niak says her contract came in handy after having her third child, who was born with a heart defect and had to convert to be a carer and a stay at home mom. In her opinion, while she would be earning less than the average nursing assistant, she is better able to care for all three of her children as a single mother.
“with that type of flexibility, I can set my work hours and say when I can and cannot work and spend quality time with my children”
But critics say that Zero-hour contracts can create insecurities for workers and are used by employers to undercut wages and avoid holiday pay and pension contributions
A survey from TUC says that two thirds of Zero hours contract workers would prefer guaranteed works hours. While flexibility was a plus, there are no guarantee of hours even when you’re available to work
Jamaican born carer Marlene Wilson says it was never ideal for her as she was never really sure if she was going to be working the next month
“I have always been a hard worker, but I think because of my background being Jamaican and not British and in my line of work as a carer, they never offered me a full time contract”
She added that her hours will come like “droplets”, while her rent came like “clockwork” every month.
“Living in this country is so different from back home, you can’t ask you neighbour for nothing, you have to purchase it all and pay your rent all n your own and with no guarantee of work its like living with weight on your shoulder”
The research also suggests that the median hourly pay before tax for someone on a zero-hour contract was £7.70 compared to £11.80 for other workers, and that 23% of zero-hour contracts have night work as a usual part of their working pattern, compared to 11% of other workers
The union’s research was based on analysing the latest official data on zero-hours contracts.
The data shows there are around 780,000 on such contracts, equivalent to 2.4% of the working population.
People on such contracts are more likely to fall into one or more of four categories – young, part-time, women or in full-time education.
Zero hours contracts became popular in the late 1980s and 1990s, and are inextricably linked with low-paid jobs, a lack of employment rights and only being paid for the work you do. At the height of privatisation and contracting out, zero hours contracts were a model of flexibility and cost-saving.
However, zero hours contracts have rarely been used for highly skilled white-collar staff. They are normally restricted to low-skilled jobs, such as catering, cleaning and security.
If a fast-food restaurant is having a quiet Sunday afternoon, why pay the individuals for not working? It is a waste of money. They can be sent home or to a rest room. This might leave the employer a bit short-staffed, but if someone must wait four minutes longer for a burger and fries, no-one gets hurt.
The issue is whether you can apply the same line of thinking and working practice to more highly skilled jobs, where it could be a matter of life or death, as opposed to a longer wait for lunch.
The other area of concern about zero hours contracts is the intention that individuals working under them are not meant to be employees. Employees have rights, lots of them.
Maternity rights, the right not to be unfairly dismissed, the right to a redundancy payment and so on, all exist. These, along with lots of others, are all rights exclusive to employees.
Organisations using zero hours contracts want cheapness and flexibility. Therefore, zero hours contracts are frequently drafted specifically to avoid creating any kind of employment relationship. The last thing an organisation wanting absolute flexibility needs is employment rights, employment claims, maternity leave and so on.
The question is whether the mutual flexibility and lack of security of zero hours contracts, which might work perfectly well with sectors such as cleaning and catering, will work in highly skilled, time-critical and life critical situations.
