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Zero contract hours: Exploitative, or providing welcome flexibility?

The ONS reportedtodaythat just over 1.4 million people are employed under zero hour contracts.

Ed Miliband described them last week as expoitative and comparable to an “epidemic.” While Ed’s hyperbole is welcome in otherwise bland and boring professional politican rhetoric, this seems a bit of an exaggeration surely?

For younger people in lower paid jobs, the service industry for example, who may be in school or university, zero contract hours aren’t perhaps the end of the world. Indeed the ONS found that those in zero-contract hours were largely female, students and either under 25 or over 65.

If, however, you’re relying on a certain amount of weekly hours to pay the bills and feed the kids, a zero hour contract, uninhibited by regulations, minimum hours and any legal rammifications to your employer if they decide to give you nothing for the week, is potentially damaging and dangerous.

From the stats, this group seems to be in the minority, but there are very few safeguards around this, and most people seem to be buying into the Vince Cable’s idea of “welcome flexibility”, regardless of the potential abuse of the system and the fact that figures for zero hour contracts are far larger than expected.

But what do Bdaily Yorkshire readers think? Any employers out there thinking of employing people under zero contract hours? Are they an advantage or a potential disaster waiting to happen?

Send us your thoughts (clare.burnett@bdaily.co.uk) or write an opinion piece here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .