Zero Hour Contracts

A few months ago, when the detestable Thatcher kicked the bucket, there were people on here applauding her attempts to destroy trade unionism in Britain.

I wonder how those people feel about the seemingly inevitable result of not having strong worker representation - Zero Hour Contracts, which seem to be increasing rapidly.

To quote wikipedia - A zero-hour contract is an employment arrangement in which an employee agrees to be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours or times of work are specified.The employee is expected to be on-call and receives compensation only for hours worked.

So basically, you are expected to sit by the phone, just in case your employer feels like throwing you a crust. You're not on a retainer, you get no income unless they actually decide to allow you to labour for them. You cant think to yourself "its a nice day, no work, I'll take myself off to the beach", because they might phone up and call you in.

You're a puppet on a string, basically. Or from the employers point of view, a muppet on a string. Reel 'em in and make 'em dance, throw them a few pennies, then back into the box, robot.

From an unemployed person's point of view, the only good thing about zero hour contracts is that you cant be made to apply for one (at the moment - things change).

 

Boots staff on zero-hours contracts could be sent to work abroad


Workers who sign contracts which guarantee neither work nor wages from the high street chemist must be prepared to leave their families and homes

Staff on zero-hours contracts at Boots may be sent to work abroad with little notice.

Workers who sign the controversial agreements – which guarantee neither work nor wages – must also be prepared to travel to any of the chain’s UK stores.

The Sunday Mirror has seen a zero-hour contract from the high street chemist, which demands that its employees – most of whom are paid the minimum wage – must be prepared to leave their homes and families at any time.

It states: “There is no requirement to be based permanently outside the UK – although you may be required to work abroad for short periods of time depending on the needs of your business.”

It goes on to say: “The company cannot guarantee to provide a minimum number of hours per week. The company reserves the right to make changes to the hours and days you are required to work.”

:devil: The company, essentially, wants to own your soul.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boots-staff-zero-hours-contracts-could-2122246

 

Princess Diana charity axes 2,400 staff then re-hired on zero-hour contracts

It is thought staff at Turning Point may now have to use charity themselves in order to put food on the table


One of Princess Diana’s cherished charities has callously fired thousands of staff and re-hired hundreds of them on despised zero-hour contracts, the Sunday People has revealed.

Turning Point – which adopted Princes William and Harry’s mother as patron in 1985 – has terminated 2,400 employees’ contracts and issued new ones – including 300 zero-hour agreements.

These unfair contracts mean workers must be available as and when they are needed with no set minimum hours, making it impossible for them to plan their lives or budget safely.

Princess Diana worked for Turning Point until her death and was proud of the way it helped vulnerable people deal with drug and alcohol misuse.

One key aim of the charity – with the motto “We turn people’s lives around” – is to help people in difficulties get back to work.

On its website the charity says: “Meaningful employment fulfils deep psychological needs, which in turn drives better mental and physical health. It also helps define a person’s *identity, social role and status.

“We have a fantastic track-record of helping people back into work.”

But now the charity will stand accused of turning the lives of its own workers upside down – when the 300 furious staff take bosses to an employment tribunal, backed by Unite union.

Unite regional officer Jamie Major said: “Some of the charity’s workers may now even have to use charity themselves by resorting to food banks in order to put food on the table.

“What makes staff so angry is that these attacks on good people who provide crucial services to the most vulnerable in society are not being driven by financial difficulties, but by an increasing free market ethos in the not-for-profit sector.”

Turning Point has been praised by politicians from all parties for its work with addicts, long-term unemployed and people with mental health problems.

But the use of zero-hour contracts – driven by recession-hit cost-cutting bosses in the private sector – threatens to shatter the caring image so passionately promoted by Princess Diana.

Companies including Sports Direct, Cineworld, internet giant Amazon and pub chain JD Wetherspoon, have also been criticised by MPs and unions for using the dodgy agreements.

Around 250,000 people in the UK were working under the unreasonable zero-hour terms and conditions by the end of 2012, according to the Office for National Statistics. That’s up 32 per cent on last year and 75 per cent on 2008.

Unite also says the many other Turning Point staff have been taken back on “shabby” contracts which could lose staff between £4,000 and £6,000 a year in wages and see redundancy and pension pay threatened.

Turning Point Chief *executive Lord Victor Adebowale – a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords – faces being shamed at the tribunal for selling the charity’s soul at the expense of its workers, says Unite.

Mr Major said: “Anyone can see that what Lord Victor and Turning Point have done is morally wrong.

“It’s now up to the tribunal to decide if they have broken the law.”

The zero-hour contracts drawn up by the charity can terminate the period of work offered to staff at any time, for any reason, and whether or not work is available – with just a week’s notice.

Turning Point can also review the hourly rate for workers “from time-to-time” and staff are given no set hours, meaning they have no idea how many hours – if any – they will be working.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “Zero-hours contracts are blighting this country. A quarter of a million working people don’t know from one day to the next if they’ll be working or earning.”

Turning Point said: “These changes were made out of genuine need to *respond to ever-changing demands on public finances. They were not made lightly.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/princess-diana-charity-axes-2400-2122744

 

An example from a couple of months ago - the rich party, the workers...dont work and dont get paid.

Alnwick Castle staff to lose a week's pay for society wedding attended by Kate Middleton, Prince William and Harry

Broomstick riding instructors at the castle which doubles as Harry Potter’s Hogwarts are among staff who will lose a week’s pay when it shuts to host a society wedding.

About 100 staff – kept on seasonal zero-hours contracts which mean they are paid only for shifts they work – have been told to stay away as Alnwick Castle prepares to welcome royal guests at the wedding of the Duke of Northumberland’s second daughter.

Princes William and Harry plus heavily pregnant Kate are among 500 guests invited to see Thomas van Straubenzee, 30, marry Lady Melissa Percy, 26, tomorrow in the parish church.

The ceremony will be followed by a lavish reception at the Duke’s 900-year-old ancestral home.

But staff were told the castle, a popular tourist attraction, was being closed to prepare for the big day.

And that means guides, minstrels and even broomstick riding instructors at the venue, where the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed, have lost out during a peak-holiday period.

A staff member said: “People are absolutely gutted. We’ve been hit hard in the pocket. No work means no wages.

“No expense has been spared on the wedding but a lot of us have been told we are not needed.

“We can watch the firework show from outside and they will pipe the music from the reception outside. But that won’t pay the rent.”

Ironically, the Duchess of Northumberland claimed her daughter’s wedding should be a cause of celebration for the locals.

“We want people to feel this is their wedding,” she said. “This is all about the extended Alnwick family and we want them to share it.”

But the 12th Duke of Northumberland is no stranger to controversy.

In February, he was blamed for wrecking the livelihoods of tenant farmers after his land agent demanded huge rent increases.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alnwick-castle-staff-lose-weeks-1973452

 

TUC Secretary Frances O'Grady: Stop stripping workers' rights

The rise of zero-hours contracts is yet another sign of how tough it can be for people at work under this Government.

Rights are being stripped away. Employees now have to wait two years before getting protection from unfair dismissal. New charges as high as £1,200 will make it impossible for many to take a case to an employment tribunal even if they would get their boss bang to rights at a hearing.

Zero-hours contracts sum up what is going wrong. They shift almost all power from the worker and give it to their boss. Anyone on such a contract has no guarantee of any work from one day to another. Put a foot wrong, and you can find yourself with little or no work. Speak up and you can be denied all but the most anti-social shifts.

Even those lucky enough to have a secure job are probably earning less in real terms than they did five years ago – while prices for fuel, energy and food are much higher.

Four in five new jobs are in low-paid sectors, and many are going to people who once had better jobs that not only paid more, but made full use of their skills and talents.

It is becoming clear that zero-hours contracts and poor conditions are common at household names and major brands. It is not just the gangmasters of backstreet enterprises and sweatshops.

It is not enough to just want jobs for all. We need to ensure people have decent jobs that pay well, where they can use their skills and be treated with respect.

Too many ministers seem to be happy with a jobs market that can offer no more than minimum wage jobs that provide no guarantee of work and give their bosses the kind of absolute power that Victorian mill owners once had.

Britain can – and should – do better.

 

One for the royal arselickers to defend (and I'm sure they will try...)

Buckingham Palace uses zero-hours contracts for summer staff

The 350 part-time employees deployed as extra staff during Buckingham Palace's summer opening have no guaranteed hours. They work in the shop, greet visitors, and work as monitors in the rooms made open to the public.

Buckingham Palace opened its doors to the public earlier this week, but all the temporary staff hired to run the State Rooms attraction, which includes a Diamond Jubilee exhibition, are forced to sign contracts which give them no guarantee of any work.

However, although the contract leaves staff with no promise of work, they are not allowed to work for any other employee without written permission from the palace.

:devil: And you thought feudalism was dead ?

A copy of a staff contract seen by the Guardian, dated 2009, says: "Your hours of work will be advised by the visitor manager and will be dependent upon the requirements for retail assistants at Buckingham Palace as and when required.

"You are employed to work exclusively for Royal Collection Enterprises Limited [a Palace subsidiary] and if you wish to seek secondary employment you must first obtain the written consent of your Head of Department."

A spokeswoman for the palace said the contracts did not guarantee any amount of work, but said rotas were drawn up a month in advance for staff to plan their hours.

:devil: Right...run that past me again... you're not guaranteed any hours of work, but there's a rota to help you plan the hours of work you may not get.

But she declined to characterise them as zero-hours contracts: "All temporary staff employed during the summer opening of Buckingham Palace are issued with fixed-term employment contracts for a three-or four-month period. These are not zero-hours contracts."

The palace argues that because the staff are entitled to certain benefits on days when they are called in, such as a free hot or cold lunch, holiday pay and uniforms, amongst other benefits, they cannot be described as zero-hours.

:devil: And that's not zero hours ? Ok...

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union, called for the contracts to be made illegal due to the damage they cause to families (though evidently not the Royal Family)

He said: "Zero-hours contracts should be outlawed entirely. They wind the clock back to the bad old days of people standing at the factory gates, waiting to be picked for a day's work. Many people on zero-hours contracts are on the lowest wages in our economy, making them the least able to cope with financial shocks like a drastic cut in hours from one week to the next. This has a damaging impact on family life, and on people's spending – bad news for our economy and our society."

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/buckingham-palace-zero-hours-contracts

 

I'm on a zero hour contract. It works both ways. I can bugger off when I want and go backpacking - then I pick up the same job when I get back. That's only possible now my CV has 11 years of good experience in this field on it though.

 

If your generation doesn't have the gumption to demand more than a pay-day loan life from yourselves, your leaders, your political parties, the banks, you will be forever an indentured servant to a system that has been bent out of shape.

It is time you demanded your birthright, which is the modern welfare state where everyone's life is afforded protection and dignity. Don't tell me it can't be done because I was there in 1945 when a revolution washed over Britain and for the first time in our nation's history, people were judged by their character and not by their class, their region or their accent.

The words of Harry Leslie Smith, aged 90, who has seen this kind of thing before -



"Some, I suppose, might call the zero-hours contract natural progress, the evolutionary step from a sea of unionism to the beach head of capitalistic corporatism, but I would prefer to call it economic nostalgia by the ruling classes. You see, I've done my share of labour; I have worn both the worker's cap and the manager's suit and I have known both hunger and plenty. Being 90, I witnessed and experienced the great depression where there were no work contracts and employers could hire or fire workers at their leisure. The dock workers of our ports and the labourers who tilled our fields, mended our roads or built our skylines had little protection from employment abuse because jobs were scarce and hunger was abundant.

As a boy, I remember watching beaten men beg for work at the bolted gates of a local mill while behind bars of iron, a harried manager picked from an uneven line the lucky few who'd earn a bit of dosh while working like a horse in a shuck. The men who were chosen were those who knew that the price for survival was to keep schtum over the injustices done to them. As for the others, well they were like all of the other unfortunates in Britain – their lives, like rubbish bins, were left on the curb side.

This is why I am disturbed by zero-hours contracts because so much talent and ability in today's generation is being jeopardised by an authoritarian business dogma dictated by large corporations that demand sacrifice from their employees, handouts from the government and excessive profits for their stakeholders. Ultimately, this myopic greed by business, which is encouraged by our government, cannot be sustained or civilisation as we know it will rot like the fruit that falls on to the ground in late September.

However, the problem is more than the avarice that has metastasised like a malignant cancer in our business leaders – it is also our own indifference to the injustices done to our society. Sure, many people are outraged by zero-hours contracts. Yet once the online comment sections of our newspapers are closed for discussion and this news cycle ends, today's dailies will wrap tonight's fish. Morning will come and there will be a new, fresh scandal or outrage to sting us, irritate us or frighten us and then it will disappear like smoke rings from our consciousness.

As a species we are unique because we can either learn from or choose to forget unpleasant experiences. If we ignore the root cause of zero-hours contracts then like the inhabitants of ancient Pompeii this country shall be buried not under a mountain of molten lava but under a wave of corporate greed.

In Britain, we have to start asking the tough questions not only to our leaders but also to ourselves. Left, right or centre, everyone has to pause and think about what type of country they want. We have to take some responsibility for our destiny and use our influence, be it great or small, to change this nation for the better.

Zero-hours contracts should be abolished and each and every MP should be required to sign a declaration to their constituents as to where they stand on the matter. There should be open and honest debates about the NHS and its future. We should discuss poverty, education, social mobility and the benefits of wealth used for both individual enhancement and societal change. It's time the people of this country start to realise life isn't a reality TV show and what really matters is what's happening on your street, in your riding, in your county and around your country.

Those generations – X, Y, Z and the millennials – who wait in the wings wondering if their elders can do any more damage to their futures, it's time for you to take the ear-pods out and demand your voice be heard. If your generation doesn't have the gumption to demand more than a pay-day loan life from yourselves, your leaders, your political parties, the banks, you will be forever an indentured servant to a system that has been bent out of shape.

It is time you demanded your birthright, which is the modern welfare state where everyone's life is afforded protection and dignity. Don't tell me it can't be done because I was there in 1945 when a revolution washed over Britain and for the first time in our nation's history, people were judged by their character and not by their class, their region or their accent."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/09/zero-hours-contracts-great-depression

 

I was on one, too.
It worked well for just over 5 years.
They did let me know what I was doing in advance - approx the next seven days. sometimes longer.
A few of those years my assignments lasted a whole year, longer if I really wanted to.
I had no complaints.
Holidays (28).
Sick pay.
But then they lost contracts, and the work dried up.
Then I was struggling, as I didn't have transport to go further out.
I eventually had to leave.
Then you realise you can never be made redundant.
You can never get any redundancy pay.
So you could work for a company for a decade or more and get SFA.

Now the issue is in the news it's inevitable bad practices are going to dominate.
I don't know how it balances Good V Bad practices.
It should not be abused.
People do or should know what they are getting into, and should know what might happen.
I'm glad the issue is in the news.

 

Don't see the problem, if I were paid on contract for doing 0 hours work I don't think I'd be complaining.

 

I hope that was tongnue-in-cheek, Lith.

A zero hours contract pays you only for the work you do, and guarantees you no more than zero hours a week ... although you might be given more than that to do.

 

Data from the CIPD’s forthcoming summer 2013 Labour Market Outlook – based on a nationally representative survey of over 1,000 employers – show that:

A fifth (19%) of employers said they employed at least one person on a zero hours contract.

Employers in the voluntary sector (34%) and the public sector (24%) were more likely to use zero hour’s contracts than private sector employers (17%).

The industries where employers said they were most likely to employ at least one person on a zero hours contracts were hotels, catering and leisure (48%), education (35%) and healthcare (27%).

A quarter (25%) of organisations with 250 or more employees used zero hours contracts compared to 11% of smaller organisations with fewer than 250 employees.

Among the fifth of employers who made use of zero hours contracts, the majority (54%) employed less than 10% of their workforce on these terms and the main proportion of workers on zero hours contracts in these organisations was 16%.

Based on this data, a best estimate would be that 3-4% of all the workers covered in this survey were on zero hours contracts, which would equate to about one million workers across the UK labour force.

Data from the CIPD’s quarterly Employee Outlook survey series, based on a sample of 148 zero hours contract workers, provides additional insight into the circumstances of employees who regarded themselves as having no guaranteed hours of employment/as a zero hours worker:

The average hours worked by zero hours’ contract workers is 19.5 per week.
In all, 38% of zero hours contract workers, describe themselves as employed full time, working typically 30 hours or more a week.
Of the 62% who are working part time, about a third (38%) would like to work more hours.
Across all zero hours contract workers (both part-time and full-time) 14% report that their employer often or very often fails to provide them with sufficient hours to have a basic standard of living.

However 18% say this does not happen very often and 52% say this does not happen at all .

By age group, those who are primarily employed on zero hour contracts are twice as likely to be young (18 to 24) or old (55 plus) than other age groups.

 

Just found out about this zero hours contract thing! How much further are the workers in Britain going to have to doff their caps before they stand up and say "enough"?

 

Do you think they should abolish 'zero-hour contracts'? What do you think should (not could) happen if they did?

 

Thats some fucked up shit yo, more like indentured servitude because no job means no house and your homeless lol, forced slavery

 

sounds to me you need to have more oy punks around doing strikes and stuff for union and workers rights. I read somewhere about it, they were the original skinheads, it was popular with working class brits of every race wanting to show their displeasure with the system

 

Do you mean something like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anq3qJ0w-wo"]Chelsea - Right To Work - 1977 45rpm - YouTube


In 1977, Chelsea released Right to Work. As with the term “public school,” “right to work” has opposite meanings in the US and UK. In America, it means the “right” of the government to override closed shop agreements between unions and employers, a contractual agreement companies should support. Except, since closed shops benefit unions, pro-market advocates don’t support it, and hypocritically call for state regulation. In the UK, “right to work” is less Orwellian. It means what says: the right to a job. Chelsea’s 1977 song noted the irony of the British right-to-work principle versus the ugly reality of unemployment and long dole lines. It’s as good a starting point as any to talk about the thread of anti-capitalist sentiment that runs through punk.

http://souciant.com/2012/02/anti-capitalism-in-punk/

 

I attended an interview and it was only when the job was offered to me that they said it was a zero-hour contract. It wasn't any good for me at the time as I needed a full-time wage to support myself and to be honest, I'm the kind of person that needs a bit of stability so it wouldn't suit me anyway, but I can definitely see how it could work for some people but as I said, definitely not for others.

 

in the building trade it was 715 certificate, youre wage was a lot higher than them on the books, you could claim for a lot i.e. office, petrol,secretary, then the government stopped it,so therefore zero hours contract is more or less self employed with the company taking all the tax breaks

 

From The Void...


Universal Credit And Zero Hours Contracts – A Car Crash Waiting To Happen

Important new information has emerged via an FOI request by @refuted which states that unemployed benefit claimants should not be sanctioned for not applying for or not taking up a job on a zero hours contract.

This suggests that someone at the DWP has spotted a looming problem for Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms which could see up to a million jobs on zero-hours contracts unavailable for benefit claimants because of stringent new rules on benefit conditionality.

Zero-hours contracts are a fast growing phenomena which are used by grasping employers to strip away workplace rights and demolish job security. Instead of regular hours for regular pay, companies force employees to sign a contract which simply states they will be available for work, but offers no guarantee of any work actually being available.

On many contracts workers are obliged to take any shifts offered, often on short notice, meaning it is not possible to commit to a second job, study or any other form of activity in case you are called in to work. It is not just the private sector who have embraced these exploitative arrangements, many public and voluntary sector jobs now come with these kinds of contracts.

This presents a huge problem for Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms and the newly introduced Claimant Commitments. These commitments involve a massively extended system of conditionality for claiming benefits. Claimants on the unemployment benefit Jobseekers Allowance will now be expected to show that they are spending 35 hours a week on ‘work related activity’ which means anything from applying for jobs to attending training sessions or even workfare. Single parents with children over 5 are now also being dragged into this regime and forced to endlessly look for work whilst their kids are at school. Once their children are 13 they will be expected to work full time, and travel up to 90 minutes each way to work and back leaving teenage children abandoned from dawn til dusk.

When Universal Credit is finally introduced, part time workers will also have to show that they are looking for ‘more or better paid’ work to be able to maintain in-work benefits such as the Housing Element of the new benefit (which will replace Housing Benefits).

Millions of people are set to be affected. And not one of them will be able to sign a zero hours contracts without potentially losing their in-work benefits. Under the new rules, someone working 16 hours a week, can now be sent on Mandatory Work Activity (workfare) by the Jobcentre for the remaining 19 hours a week. If they refuse they can have benefits sanctioned, possibly for up to three years. If they attend this workfare, then they are likely to be in breach of their zero-hours contract.

This is likely to be one reason why according to the latest information from the DWP, claimants cannot be forced to take a job on a zero-hours contract. The DWP would rather have you on workfare, or sat at an A4e or G4S training centre then sitting at home waiting on your employer to offer you a shift.

But the DWP haven’t made the problem go away. Many major companies, including McDonals, JD Wetherspoon and Sport Direct now have most of their workforce on zero-hours contracts. And many of these low paid and often part time workers are exactly the kind of people who will need to claim Universal Credit if only to pay the some portion of their rent. And they won’t be able to. Unless they give up work.

So whilst with one hand the DWP is doing everything they can to bully claimants into low paid, part time and insecure work, with the other it is actively preventing them from taking up that kind of work with some of the UK’s largest employers. And all because of welfare reforms scribbled down on the back of an envelope by Ministers who are completely out of touch with the realities of the workplace for those at the bottom of the income scale.

Not everyone is taking zero-hours contracts lying down. The Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union – who have strong anti-workfare policies – are currently taking industrial action at Hovis after agency workers on zero-hour contracts were brought in to replace workers previously made redundant. Show solidarity by helping spread the word and following them on twitter @IanBFAWU

http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/201...ours-contracts-a-car-crash-waiting-to-happen/