Would you like to be on a Zero Hours Contract?

Imagine being bullied by the employer, on the pretext that to work is a privilege, to earn a living wage is no longer a priority, to be on flexi hours is an advantage bestowed by a benevolent employer. Imagine not being offered even a seat in a workplace but having to stand all the time during the hours of work assigned.

by Victor Cherubim

( March 28, 2015, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Jeremy Paxman in his first TV Election Debate with David Cameron, 42 days before the May UK Parliamentary Election, addressed this question to the Prime Minister yesterday. Sheepishly, the Prime Minister avoided a direct answer, but said it was the choice of each person. Labour Leader Ed Miliband. instead, has vowed that a future Labour Government, will force employers to provide steady and secure work with access to employment law and rights, to all who are currently on zero hours contracts, after serving 6 months or more on these contracts.

Labour Party’s Ed Milliband, has officially kicked started his election campaign ahead of the Tories from the Olympic Park, Stratford in the Newham constituency in East London, the home of the vast majority of immigrant workers from the Asian Sub continent, assuring not only secure investment in the future of the National Health Service (NHS) by stopping privatisation, equally investing the future of younger generation with a virtual end to Zero Hour Contracts.

Zero Hour Contacts or the Casualisation of labour market allowing employers to hire staff with no minimum guarantee of working hours, conditions or pay, has been a thorn in the side of Unions and opposed by the Labour Party. Employees are taken on work when they are needed by employers, often at very short notice. Their pay depends on how often they work, they are unable or unwilling to access existing employment rights, and they are unable to predict how much they will earn a week, unable to budget for their minimum needs.

Imagine receiving a call from an employer to start work at 0630 hours and told at 11.30 hrs that their day’s work is over as there was no work. Could you believe the stress and the uncertainty of the zero hours, as employers use any excuse to lay off staff, on the pretext of fluctuating demand for their services. Employers have conveniently used this method of hire and fire, an import from US, to avoid paying fixed overheads for their work places, flexibility at their discretion over their work force and coercion over their employees to turn up for work at will and doing away with labour who are not able to attend when “summoned” for work.

Imagine having worked a lifetime on a salary, then going on Zero Hours Contract and their take home pay being cut to half their normal salary. Imagine having to maintain a home and family on half a normal minimum salary to £300 a month. Imagine having been used to the usual terms and conditions of employment, then warned all the legislation enacted over centuries on working conditions are all rescinded overnight under the Zero Hours Contract.

Imagine being bullied by the employer, on the pretext that to work is a privilege, to earn a living wage is no longer a priority, to be on flexi hours is an advantage bestowed by a benevolent employer. Imagine not being offered even a seat in a workplace but having to stand all the time during the hours of work assigned.

It appears we are going back to the days of the Industrial Revolution, where work was tedious, the employer was supreme, and seeking financial stability and security was a thing of bygone times. Is this another form of worker exploitation in the 21 century? The Trades Union Congress maintains workers on Zero Hours Contracts are at risk of exploitation with majority of workers earning less than a living wage. However, the Conciliation Service (ACAS) says that the breaks in their contracts are not tantamount to abrogation of employment rights as regular workers. Zero hours workers are entitled to annual leave, rest breaks and national minimum wage but not redundancy pay or statutory minimum notice period.

Do you know that 583,000 people or 2% of UK work force are now signed up involuntarily or voluntarily to work on zero hours contracts. A Survey by the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development, has put the number of zero hours contracts at more than one million, which if analysed is a third of all volunteer sector organisations, along with a quarter of public sector employers and 17% of all private sector firms in the UK – all use Zero Hours Contracts.

The Advantages of Zero Hours Contracts

Employers maintain that Zero Hour Contract is a boon to employees. It gives them flexibility to work hours suitable to their state of requirement/ needs. They welcome flexibility of zero hour’s contracts for some type of employees, who cannot work full time due to personal reasons. Besides, certain employers, like catering and food industries use the highest proportion of Zero hours contracts, as it also suits their trades.

But the Government has come in for criticism for threatening to take away job seekers allowance benefits for three months or more if people / workers refuse to take jobs and roles with zero hours contracts. Imagine a professionally qualified person assigned to work as a Gardener, refusing to work outdoors, any hours, as directed? What is fairplay?

All in all, if Labour wins the next election, we can be sure it will introduce more rights for workers, compensation if shifts are cancelled at short notice and fixed hours contract, after 12 months with an employer.

If the Conservatives win the next election, they will hope to review these zero hours contracts, but perhaps, may not altogether do away with this way of working. They maintain that the flexibility is enjoyed by both the employer and the employee. Does anyone deny that?