To think zero hour contracts should be banned

[Pamplemousecat]

In my view they are useful and lucrative only to the employers. Though they profess to offer flexibility for employees , the vast majority suffer poverty due to unpredictability of hours and wages. They are a way of creating modern day slaves.

I understand. But I left a role for a zero hours contract 2 years ago because I was mid crisis and it appealed to me that I could work when I wanted to and when I was able to. I think their also useful for college kids being able to take weeks off during exams but still have a job for the summer afterwards

Argh. I changed they’re to their then now reading it back I was right the first time 😂
I’m very tired today

No! YABVVU. If used well they can be great for flexibility round childcare for shift workers. It is incredibly short sighted just to ban them outright. I am really concerned for what would happen to my career prospects if they were banned.

Not completely at all.

They were extremely useful when I had one as a second job, as I could pick up and drop shifts as I wanted with no come back.

I worked on a zero hours contract for several years, my choice. It certainly isn’t for everyone but I wasn’t a modern day slave, quite the opposite.

I love my 0 hours! I'm in a job where I tell the boss when I'm able to work (around other work) and I'm given whatever hours I like. I gather I'm very fortunate though!

I know people who they work extremely well for, so YABU. Parents who work hours to suit them around childcare needs and then don't work at all in school holidays being one example.

YANBU. For those that say they give flexibility - can a part time job with fixed hours not give flexibility also? Can a part time job with fixed minimum hours but additional hours sometimes available not give flexibility? Must we fuck up other people's lives and subject them to poverty so that some students can have the flexibility of only working when they need to?

In my industry it’s the workers on shift work permanent contracts that are the slaves. Zero hours workers can pick and choose.

Apile pretty hard to get fixed hours in my 24/7 industry.

I had zero hours & worked well for me, husband in the military/kids at school so could work as little or a many shifts as I wanted depending on when my husband was working/away

Banned? I'm looking for one now. It'll suit me!

@Apileofballyhoo
I wouldn’t have been able to run my business without student workers tbh and not many of them would have been keen on a contract as they liked to pic and choose their days off, and like I say I would have lost the lot of them if they’d have quit fully for exams, summer was my busiest time and I wouldn’t have been able to cope with training new staff I needed the ones who knew the place and the customers like the back of their hands.

Ok maybe title could do with tweaking. What I object to is the employee being at the mercy of employer in the recent example of McDonald’s. To be a fair “ contract” it has to work for employees too. Need to amend title to reflect somehow

I agree with what you mean pamplemousecat, I'm currently on a zero hour contract, but work a fixed 35 hour week and it's not cool. I love my job, so for the moment am okay with it, but my heart is never 100% in it because I know I could be ditched without warning or reason at any time.

YABU

You could argue that the employer is also at the mercy of the employee surely?

I'm on a zero hours contract and it suits me perfectly because I don't want to work in school holidays. Appreciate I'm very fortunate to be in this position though and they're not good for a lot of people.

I love my zero hours job. Although I appreciate I'm extremely fortunate, I work when I can and don't have to do any work at all if I don't want to. Equally, I can work 7 days a week if I want to. I wouldn't be able to work if my zero hours was taken away.

I could be wrong but don’t employers have a bank of zero hours staff they can call in if someone doesn’t turn up ? So risk feels greater to employee to me. Also If someone is the main breadwinner how do you get a mortgage / rental accommodation without fixed income?

It depends how the contract is implemented. Zero hour contracts sound great for the employee in principle but in practice it often means that the employee is expected to be available at the whim of the employer and if they say no to any shifts then they don't get asked again.
Better for most people would be a flexible minimum guaranteed hours contract which can be worked flexibly.

The type of people that want to ban then tend to be the leftie champagne socialists who've never actually done one.

There's always been casual workers before the term zero hour contract was introduced. It works for students, parents with school holidays to cover, amongst other cohorts.

Most people who went to uni might have a casual contract where their uni town is then another at home for the holidays to fund their studies. But the kind of people think zero hour contracts are always exploitative will have been doing work experience at daddy's law firm whilst at uni, not stacking shelves in sainsbury's.

I think they have definite benefits for some but know young people who find it hard to get mortgages because of their zero hours contracts even though they are effectively working full time. This needs looking at I think.

YABU. They suit many people as they can work around children, uni, gain a second income etc.

If it’s not enough to live on then people are free to find something else that better suits the hours they need.

Not so much banned as They work for some people. For example. If your DH is a Bank Manager and you don’t have to work, but Still want to know and then for pin money and your sanity. You’ve got a fit healthy and spritely retired mum and dad who live a few doors down and are more that not only able but willing to look after the kids at the drop of a hat. Then a zero hours contract job is superb.
However if like most of us You stuck here in the RW. Then I do not think people should be forced into them. Certainly not single mums for example who only have one wage coming in. Who can live like that.
David Cameron couldn’t. He even admitted it on the Jeremy Paxman show back in 2015.

There's always been casual workers before the term zero hour contract was introduced. It works for students, parents with school holidays to cover, amongst other cohorts.
Yes but casual workers used to mean you'll need to work 2 days but we can't tell you which ones rather than you might or might not get some hours this week.
You can't plan your finances if you don't know how much money you're getting week to week.

Moon age day dreams- I see what you mean but I’m not a champagne lefties socialist at all. My holiday job was hard manual labour and I was paid next to nothing for doing it . But I loved it and I could afford to take it as I was able to live at home. I definitely didn’t do an office job I can assure you!! I’ve worked with people who have taken on this work because there’s nothing else and they’ve no alternative. However they can’t plan for the future.