Zero hours contracts in UK employee law

Zero hour contracts are legally permissible in UK employment law through the
Employment Rights Act 1996.Under these contracts, employers are not obliged
to proide people with wor!, and employees do not hae to accept any wor! they
are o"ered. #nstead, employers and employees hae an on$call arrangement,
with the employee agreeing that they will be aailable %or wor! when re&uired.
'o particular wor!ing times or hours are speci(ed and the wor!er is only paid %or
the hours they wor!.
Although some people hae called %or a ban on )ero hours contracts , they could
be ideal %or certain demographics, such as retired people, students and people
who re&uire *e+ibility in their employment, with ,usiness -ecretary .ince /able
con(rming the goernment is not going to ban these contracts.
'onetheless, the goernment is holding a UK law reiew into this aspect o% UK
employment law through the Zero 0ours Employment /ontracts /onsultation.
1he goernment wishes to receie eidence about the issues around )ero hour2s
contracts and responses about what the goernment could do to deal with these
issues.
1he goernment con(rmed it has no pre%erred options %or this area o% UK
employment law, but that it wishes to ensure that wor!ers receie ade&uate
protection but still can access the *e+ibility they would otherwise receie
through )ero hours contracts.
A surey o% employers by the /hartered #nstitute o% 3ersonnel and 4eelopment
5/#346 %ound that appro+imately one million people could be on )ero$hours
contracts in the UK at the moment, with around one$&uarter o% this number $
789,999 $ describing themseles as on a )ero$hours contract to the :abour ;orce
-urey. 1he /#34 suggests this discrepancy could be because many o% these
wor!ers describe themseles as casual wor!ers or on$call wor!ers, or use some
other description.
1his research also %ound that 69< o% )ero$hours wor!ers say they are satis(ed
with their =ob, compared with =ust 89< o% the UK>s labour %orce as a whole.
;urthermore, ?@< said they are satis(ed with not haing any minimum
contracted hours in their terms o% employment, compared with 7@< who said
they were unsatis(ed with this situation.
London Assembly call for ban to GLA Group zero hours contracts
/#34>s research also uneiled some issues with )ero hours contracts, howeer.
'early hal% o% all wor!ers said they either receie no notice 5?9<6 or (nd out at
the start o% a shi%t 56<6 that their wor! %or the day has been cancelled, with =ust
A7< o% employers haing a policy %or arranging )ero hours wor! and A?< haing
a policy %or cancelling scheduled wor!. As a result, the :ondon Assembly said on
Banuary 18
th
that Cayor o% :ondon ,oris Bohnson should ban )ero hours contracts
within the Dreater :ondon Authority 5D:A6 and among its contractors and
subcontractors. ;iona 1wymcross AC cited /#34 research that %ound 16< o% )ero
hours wor!ers said their employers %ail to proide them with enough wor!ing
hours, saying this aspect o% UK employment law promotes a Erace to the bottomE
%or wor!er rights.
Carol Smith studies UK employment law and reviews to UK law on behalf of a
team of cash advance solicitors and she solved many cases of 1500 cash
advance. She has been researching employment laws for many years after a
friend sufered an inury due to wor!place safety issues.