Zero hour contracts- the good, the bad and the ugly

It doesn't surprise me whatsoever that there are over half a million people on zero hour contracts, as research by the Office for National Statistics confirmed, and which was splashed on the front cover of The Guardian earlier this week. Since then the subject, not for the first time has been the topic of discussion on many radio shows and newspaper reviews. I have been meaning to write about this before, seeing as I have experience of being on a zero hour contract, but I was still in employment with the company. But now that is no longer the case, here is my take on zero hour contracts.

There is a general view that zero hour contracts have good and bad sides to them, I'll start off with the good. Zero hour contracts give the employee flexibility, this is great for students and the elderly who just want to earn a bit of money on the side, and it is helpful to parents who have childcare responsibilities. Within reason you can easily negotiate the days you can and can't work, if you work hard enough the hours will be offered to you, and there is a possibility of full time work after a period of time, if you want it. And if you need a shift covered it's relatively easy to do so without too much fuss.

But despite the positives that they can offer, zero hour contracts are just a more modern example of how insecure the British labour market has become and heading towards. Zero hour contracts take away any kind of social contract between the employer and the employee. Instead of being a member of the company you're just a worker, and nothing more. Your weekly hours can change from one week to the next, no matter what the trade is like, and in general the extra hours offered to me were done so at the last minute, often on the night before they wanted me to do the shift or on the day that I was already doing a shift, they would ask if I could extend it (I've been asked ten minutes before my shift was meant to end).

If this is is the case it can be hard to plan round your life, because if for examples sake I had five shifts in one week (no matter how many hours), I generally planned to do things on the days I had off,  so I would often have to reject the extra hours. Which doesn't leave a very good impression on your supervisors, and it can lead to the loss of hours.

Zero hour employees are also not entitled to pension rights, share schemes, sick pay, or even holiday pay (this one example was not true in my case, but I know of many companies who don't provide it). And their are companies who will only let employees work exclusively for them no matter how few hours they're working (this was not the case with me albeit).

All of these are just examples of where the relationship between those on zero hour contracts and their employers is non existent. It's no surprise that the vast majority of zero hour contracts come from the retail and fast food sector, where the employers are more than likely going to be large companies. I'm no Marxist and I am generalising here, but above everything else their one and only goal is to maximise their profits as much as they can, the welfare of their employees is secondary.

At the end of the day, it really is no surprise that much like payday loans, zero hour contracts have boomed since the world economic crash of 2008. I personally think they are immoral for all of the bad things I have just written about them, and I would like to see their complete abolishment, but I doubt that will happen, even with a Labour elected government. But some form of regulation needs to take place because that half a million mark will only grow if nothing is done.