Melodi
Disaster Cat
An article about the growing use in the UK and Ireland of "Zero Hours" contracts - I knew this practice had practically taken over the food service industry but had no idea it had made its way into hospitals, a great way to convince doctors to move to another country!
My feeling on these contracts is they can only exist in a welfare state because they are allowed to compel people not to work for any other company. So McFast Food company signs on a worker, can give them no hours at all some weeks but forbids them to also work at pizza hut or the local pub cleaning floors at night.
The UK is looking to make that illegal and I hope Ireland follows through, these contracts were designed for very limited circumstances, for people doing casual labor, not to hold employees hostage with promises of work that don't happen and make lives impossible to budget or plan.
Ultimately this is another case of corporations (and it is mostly large corporations doing this) taking the tax payer for a ride, because everyone they "employ" this way but don't actually provide hours for (and forbid to work elsewhere) has to be topped up by the tax payer or become homeless and/or starve.
Another problem is of course the huge pressure that Welfare offices put on people to take any job offered, which many do and then end up in this situation. If they "quit" they loose their unemployment that "tops up" their non-existing hours, but it also leaves them sitting on the sofa when they are not called into work. So it isn't a simple as just saying "well people don't have to sign up for this," as a matter of practicality many do and in much of the food service industry now it is the ONLY option in a time period when in many places they are the ONLY jobs (that and supermarkets which as doing the same thing). - Melodi
Number of workers on zero-hours contracts triples
Pressure mounts on Vince Cable as data says 1.4 million people now working with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay
Phillip Inman and Angela Monaghan
The Guardian, Thursday 1 May 2014
Jump to comments (250)
Young waitress
The ONS report found that half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work. Photograph: Alamy
The number of workers on zero-hours contracts has almost tripled to 1.4 million since last year's estimate, according to official data on Wednesday that piled pressure on Vince Cable, the business secretary, to provide more safeguards for workers with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay.
More than one in 10 employers are using such contracts, which are most likely to be offered to women, young people and people over 65. The survey showed half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work. Retail and the care industry are also big users of zero-hours deals.
Labour called on Cable to adopt its plans to clamp down on abuses of casual employment contracts, blamed for creating job insecurity and pushing down wages. Chuka Umunna, shadow business secretary, described the figures from the Office for National Statistics as shocking and a reminder that the government was "failing to deliver a balanced recovery that works for all".
He said: "We will outlaw zero-hours contracts where they exploit people, ensuring that people at work are protected and get a fair deal. It's time the Tory-led government matched our plans."
The ONS update shows a huge increase since last autumn, when it estimated that 583,000 people had zero-hours contracts. The new data comes from a survey of employers and has revealed that the trend for hiring staff without guaranteeing a minimum number of hours is far more common than initially thought.
Cable has commissioned a study into the use of the contracts, the findings of which he said would be published shortly. He said: "I welcome the further clarity on zero-hour contracts provided by the ONS. Their own analysis shows that these types of contract can provide important and flexible employment opportunities that suit most people in these jobs and provide an average of 25 hours' work a week.
"However, it is also clear there has been some abuse of those on zero-hours contracts by some less scrupulous employers. Given the current estimates of people on these types of contracts, it is important we take action."
A report by the National Institute of Economic & Social Research added to the government's discomfort by showing that Britain's youngest workers have suffered an unprecedented fall in real wages since 2008. For those under 25, pay was down more than 14% and at levels last seen 16 years ago, in 1998. For workers aged 25-29, real weekly wages, adjusted for inflation, were down 12% at 1999 levels, according to the thinktank.
Real weekly wages overall have fallen by about 8% since 2008, equivalent to a fall in annual earnings of about £2,000 for a typical worker in Britain.
Critics of zero-hours contracts have argued that, far from being a response of employers to the financial crash, they signal a more fundamental shift to casual employment, especially in the public sector. The care industry employs more than 160,000 staff on zero-hours contracts, while hospitals have switched in the past two years to insisting that large numbers of workers, including anaesthetists and radiologists, are grouped in "banks" from which they bid to fill upcoming rotas.
The TUC said the figures showed the jobs market was far more precarious than the government suggested, and urged ministers to crack down on the abuse of zero-hours contracts by employers.
"Insecure work with no guarantee of regular paid hours is no longer confined to the fringes of the jobs market," said Frances O'Grady, its general secretary.
"It is worrying that so many young people are trapped on zero-hours contracts, which can hold back their careers and make it harder to pay off debts like student loans. The fact that these contracts have become the norm in tourism, catering and food will be a major concern for the millions of people employed in these industries."
Ed Miliband said last week that the contracts, which often tie a worker to a single company but in return do not guarantee employment from week to week, had reached "epidemic" levels as employers sought to exploit laws allowing flexible working.
The Labour leader said workers with irregular shifts and pay should get a contract with fixed hours if they had worked regularly for the same employer for a year.
Responding to the latest figures from the ONS, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said zero-hours contracts were only one element of a national issue of poverty among people who have jobs.
Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at the foundation, said: "Zero-hours contracts are just one aspect of the UK's problem with in-work poverty. We have workers unable to get enough hours to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and not being offered training and development by their employer, leaving them stuck in dead-end jobs.
"Tackling in-work poverty requires the nature of jobs at the bottom of the labour market to change, alongside reform to the welfare system."
About 13% of employers reported some use of zero-hours contracts. In the tourism, catering and food sectors, the contracts were in use by almost half of all businesses.
Retailer Sports Direct and JD Wetherspoons have admitted that most of their staff are on zero-hours deals, which are also common in the hospitality, leisure and transport industries. The contracts are more commonly used by large companies than small businesses.
Zero-hours contracts were found in the survey to be relatively rare among workers in the financial and professional services and the manufacturing, energy and agricultural sectors.
The ONS said 1.4 million people worked at least a few hours on zero-hours contracts in a two-week period in January, while a further 1.3 million contracts were discovered where employees were not given any hours.
The dormant contracts were excluded from the final total after the ONS decided that workers might be juggling several contracts.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/01/huge-increase-workers-zero-hours-contracts
My feeling on these contracts is they can only exist in a welfare state because they are allowed to compel people not to work for any other company. So McFast Food company signs on a worker, can give them no hours at all some weeks but forbids them to also work at pizza hut or the local pub cleaning floors at night.
The UK is looking to make that illegal and I hope Ireland follows through, these contracts were designed for very limited circumstances, for people doing casual labor, not to hold employees hostage with promises of work that don't happen and make lives impossible to budget or plan.
Ultimately this is another case of corporations (and it is mostly large corporations doing this) taking the tax payer for a ride, because everyone they "employ" this way but don't actually provide hours for (and forbid to work elsewhere) has to be topped up by the tax payer or become homeless and/or starve.
Another problem is of course the huge pressure that Welfare offices put on people to take any job offered, which many do and then end up in this situation. If they "quit" they loose their unemployment that "tops up" their non-existing hours, but it also leaves them sitting on the sofa when they are not called into work. So it isn't a simple as just saying "well people don't have to sign up for this," as a matter of practicality many do and in much of the food service industry now it is the ONLY option in a time period when in many places they are the ONLY jobs (that and supermarkets which as doing the same thing). - Melodi
Number of workers on zero-hours contracts triples
Pressure mounts on Vince Cable as data says 1.4 million people now working with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay
Phillip Inman and Angela Monaghan
The Guardian, Thursday 1 May 2014
Jump to comments (250)
Young waitress
The ONS report found that half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work. Photograph: Alamy
The number of workers on zero-hours contracts has almost tripled to 1.4 million since last year's estimate, according to official data on Wednesday that piled pressure on Vince Cable, the business secretary, to provide more safeguards for workers with no guaranteed minimum hours or pay.
More than one in 10 employers are using such contracts, which are most likely to be offered to women, young people and people over 65. The survey showed half of all workers in the tourism, catering and food sector have no guarantees of work. Retail and the care industry are also big users of zero-hours deals.
Labour called on Cable to adopt its plans to clamp down on abuses of casual employment contracts, blamed for creating job insecurity and pushing down wages. Chuka Umunna, shadow business secretary, described the figures from the Office for National Statistics as shocking and a reminder that the government was "failing to deliver a balanced recovery that works for all".
He said: "We will outlaw zero-hours contracts where they exploit people, ensuring that people at work are protected and get a fair deal. It's time the Tory-led government matched our plans."
The ONS update shows a huge increase since last autumn, when it estimated that 583,000 people had zero-hours contracts. The new data comes from a survey of employers and has revealed that the trend for hiring staff without guaranteeing a minimum number of hours is far more common than initially thought.
Cable has commissioned a study into the use of the contracts, the findings of which he said would be published shortly. He said: "I welcome the further clarity on zero-hour contracts provided by the ONS. Their own analysis shows that these types of contract can provide important and flexible employment opportunities that suit most people in these jobs and provide an average of 25 hours' work a week.
"However, it is also clear there has been some abuse of those on zero-hours contracts by some less scrupulous employers. Given the current estimates of people on these types of contracts, it is important we take action."
A report by the National Institute of Economic & Social Research added to the government's discomfort by showing that Britain's youngest workers have suffered an unprecedented fall in real wages since 2008. For those under 25, pay was down more than 14% and at levels last seen 16 years ago, in 1998. For workers aged 25-29, real weekly wages, adjusted for inflation, were down 12% at 1999 levels, according to the thinktank.
Real weekly wages overall have fallen by about 8% since 2008, equivalent to a fall in annual earnings of about £2,000 for a typical worker in Britain.
Critics of zero-hours contracts have argued that, far from being a response of employers to the financial crash, they signal a more fundamental shift to casual employment, especially in the public sector. The care industry employs more than 160,000 staff on zero-hours contracts, while hospitals have switched in the past two years to insisting that large numbers of workers, including anaesthetists and radiologists, are grouped in "banks" from which they bid to fill upcoming rotas.
The TUC said the figures showed the jobs market was far more precarious than the government suggested, and urged ministers to crack down on the abuse of zero-hours contracts by employers.
"Insecure work with no guarantee of regular paid hours is no longer confined to the fringes of the jobs market," said Frances O'Grady, its general secretary.
"It is worrying that so many young people are trapped on zero-hours contracts, which can hold back their careers and make it harder to pay off debts like student loans. The fact that these contracts have become the norm in tourism, catering and food will be a major concern for the millions of people employed in these industries."
Ed Miliband said last week that the contracts, which often tie a worker to a single company but in return do not guarantee employment from week to week, had reached "epidemic" levels as employers sought to exploit laws allowing flexible working.
The Labour leader said workers with irregular shifts and pay should get a contract with fixed hours if they had worked regularly for the same employer for a year.
Responding to the latest figures from the ONS, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said zero-hours contracts were only one element of a national issue of poverty among people who have jobs.
Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at the foundation, said: "Zero-hours contracts are just one aspect of the UK's problem with in-work poverty. We have workers unable to get enough hours to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and not being offered training and development by their employer, leaving them stuck in dead-end jobs.
"Tackling in-work poverty requires the nature of jobs at the bottom of the labour market to change, alongside reform to the welfare system."
About 13% of employers reported some use of zero-hours contracts. In the tourism, catering and food sectors, the contracts were in use by almost half of all businesses.
Retailer Sports Direct and JD Wetherspoons have admitted that most of their staff are on zero-hours deals, which are also common in the hospitality, leisure and transport industries. The contracts are more commonly used by large companies than small businesses.
Zero-hours contracts were found in the survey to be relatively rare among workers in the financial and professional services and the manufacturing, energy and agricultural sectors.
The ONS said 1.4 million people worked at least a few hours on zero-hours contracts in a two-week period in January, while a further 1.3 million contracts were discovered where employees were not given any hours.
The dormant contracts were excluded from the final total after the ONS decided that workers might be juggling several contracts.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/01/huge-increase-workers-zero-hours-contracts