‘Zero Hours’ contracts are on the rise and hark back to the bad old days of people hanging around factory gates hoping to be picked for a days work. Such contracts can hardly be construed as making work pay, one of Cameron’s favourite mantras. It means working with no guaranteed income and many people on zero hours contracts are amongst the lowest paid and therefore live fragile existences with no room to absorb financial shocks and changes to their circumstances. With no guaranteed hours, sick pay or holiday pay, it can be difficult if not impossible to get a tenancy agreement, credit card or loans because people cannot provide proof of earnings.
Sports Direct is already being subject to public action to give their 20,000 part time workers, all on zero hours contracts, a better deal. Recent revelations about zero hours contracts come from Buckingham Palace, Cineworld and the Tate galleries in London, Liverpool and St Ives, Cornwall.
The Youth Service in which I spent most of my working life used both paid and some unpaid workers, full time staff were dependent on such staff. Hours were worked out at the beginning of each month, but with levels of pay that were generous and well in excess of the minimum wage we have today. For many it was a stepping stone to fulltime paid, contracted work, which they had every expectation of getting, whilst for others it was a useful addition to fulltime work and for others it was useful, flexible work, balanced around a young family.
The difference today is the fundamental shift in attitude where the needs of staff are out of the frame of reference, workers are expected to be flexible to the needs of companies but if they cannot make themselves available for some hours for any reason, workers are likely to find themselves without any work at all. Buckingham palace whilst offering no guaranteed work also stipulates that staff cannot take other work without written permission from the Palace. Where is the reciprocal loyalty and commitment from companies which they demand from workers?
For increasing and very large numbers of people, living and working today is more like an act of desperation marked by insecurity, fear and uncertainty under coercion from state and companies and that is simply no way to live.
https://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3886
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/buckingham-palace-zero-hours-contracts
Keith Lindsay-Cameron
