Zero - Hours Contract : For or Against?

Zero-hours contract refers to a type of contract between an employer and a worker where employer is not required to provide a minimum working hour and the worker is not obliged to accept any work provided. (Pithadia ,2015). Basically, employers that accept zero contract hours could call their workers whatever they need. Its allow them to match their labour costs with the demand for their goods and services. Employers in the UK have been using this for a long time as it has tons of benefits. But, Walker (2015) suggests that zero-hours contracts have become a major political issue in the UK. This essay will discuss the disadvantages of zero-hours contracts offered by the employers.

First of all, I strongly against employers providing zero-hours contracts to their employees. This is because there is no certainty of regular earning for living. The amount an employee earns will vary week to week, for example, an employee might have lots of work at one week and might find himself with much less the next week. Moreover, zero-hour contract can cause huge distress to the employees as they need to answer to the calls and attend work quickly which leads into a very short notice. Employees may find their social life suffering as they can’t plan things too far in advance in case they are required to work, or they may need to turn down any party plans at the last minute. Although in theory, employees could turn down the offer if they are not available, the employees will get pressured by organisations to show up for the last-minute shift by risking the employees’ chances of doing another shift in the future. (Davies, 2013).  

Besides that, it is undeniably true that employees on zero-hours contracts are earning less than the fixed permanent equivalents doing the same job. (Silvera, 2014) If we could take an employee who is a single father taking care of his disabled children as an example, it’s obvious that when organisation gives employee a short notice, the employee might have trouble arranging someone to look after his children which can cause a lot of worry and stress. Since employee on zero-hours contracts earns lesser than the living wage, employee might have trouble paying for the bills. For example, living expenses where the employee might have to pay rent and living cost such as food and transportation.

   The evidence above shows how damaging a zero-hours contracts are to employees. For reasons mentioned, I think that it is horrifying that more than 900,000 UK workers are on zero-hours contracts (Inman, 2016). The government must clamp down on abuse of the contracts by "bad employers" and provide a better solution to the employees on zero-hours contracts.

Reference List

Davies, A. (2013) Pros and cons of zero hours contracts. [online]. Available at: https://www.totaljobs.com/insidejob/zero-hour-contracts/. [ Accessed 28 October 2016]

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