Record 910,000 UK workers on zero-hours contracts – because Tories don’t want work to pay
A chambermaid prepares the bed in a guest room. Zero-hours contracts are widely used by hoteliers [Image: Bloomberg/Getty].
They were a rubbish alternative to providing full-time work that meant employers didn’t have to provide holiday pay or sick pay, and didn’t even have to provide work if they didn’t feel like it.
This Site’s attitude to zero-hours contracts has not changed since early 2015.
Zero hours contracts, part-time work, under-employment rife. If that’s the Tory idea of what we need in order to create full employment, then they should be looking forward to their own P45s.
Have you been forced to accept a zero-hours contract, so you don’t know when you’ll be working but can’t claim benefits when you’re not?
If so, it’s time to stop calling it a job.
Call it a ‘Cameron’ instead.
“Hello, Bob – how’s it going?”
“Not bad. How about you? Did you get a job yet?”
“Meh. There’s nothing worthwhile to be had. All I got was a ‘Cameron’.”
Yes – a Cameron was nothing worthwhile.
But if the zero-hours trend has peaked because of Brexit, then matters could get much worse.
Instead of a ‘Cameron’ – in homage to our current PM’s nickname – all you could be left with is a ‘Maybe’.
The number of people on zero-hours contracts in the UK has hit a record high of 910,000 but there are signs the trend may have reached a peak after Britain’s decision to leave the EU, according to a leading thinktank.
The figures for the final three months of 2016 represented a rise of more than 100,000, or 13%, compared with the same period in 2015, the Resolution Foundation said in its analysis of official data.
People on zero-hours contracts are not guaranteed a minimum number of work hours but must be available. Such contracts are widely used by retailers, restaurants, leisure companies and hotels, and have been offered by companies including Sports Direct and McDonald’s.
Source: Record 910,000 UK workers on zero-hours contracts | Business | The Guardian
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You need to wake up and smell the coffee. It is not a Tory thing at all. I worked for one of the biggest Trade Unions in this country for 7 years on a zero hour, self employed contract. When I challenged them, which took me 3 years, I was sacked with no notice and took them to a Tribunal. I was awarded the status of worker by the judge, but the Union failed to disclose evidence, which would’ve put me as an employee. Trade Unions are Labour affiliated and believe this happens on a regular basis, nationally. If the Trade Unions cannot employ people correctly, what hope is there for any other organisation! I also wonder why the Trade Unions are not investigated for this practice, or any other practice for that matter?
Which trade union was this? Are you sure it is Labour-supporting? You’d need to be able to show that it pays affiliation fees and that it does not criticise the party.
Zero hour contract jobs are what I’ve been saying from the start, Glorified Volunteering, you have and do a job, you’re supposed to get paid, that’s a job, you do a job and don’t get paid, that’s volunteering, why haven’t people realised this yet?!