I use 'Zero Hour', although this is mostly about 'Zero Hours', to keep hope alive within myself that the day
is fast approaching when we shall each get an opportunity to replace our current 'interim administration' with a more enlightened form of Government. [sigh]
[In truth, this thread has more to do with my response to today's Blog offering from BarryW...]
The newspaper's Letter-Editor has thought-fit to lump nine letters under the one heading, but only the four I set out below say something about why I cannot come out firmly against the basic idea of Zero-Hours employment contracts. The first letter is the most telling, but thereafter they are set in no particular order...
"Simon Goodley and Phillip Inman list a number of disadvantages with zero-hours contracts but overlook the one you would expect the government to seize on in its campaign to get people off benefits (Report, 5 August). People leaving jobseekers' allowance for paid work have their benefits removed or adjusted in the expectation of a proper pay packet out of which the rent and council tax will be paid. If the pay turns out to be a fraction of that expected, the immediate result is unpaid bills, most likely rent arrears, followed by attempts to persuade the local authority to adjust housing benefit. It can easily reach the point where the wages for a week are less than the jobseekers' allowance - I have come across instances where no work has been offered for two weeks or more, the next step being a trip to the food bank.
The days when casual work was done by "non-working wives" for pin money while their husbands were breadwinners have long gone. The employer/employee relationship should mean commitment on both sides and the government should realise that a flexible labour force has harmful effects on the benefits system it is so keen to reduce.
Les Masters
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset"
"Policymakers should clarify to British businesses the difference between freelancers and zero-hours workers. Freelancers are independent workers who choose to undertake often unusual and unpredictable working patterns as part of a mutually agreed, mutually beneficial contract. Zero-hours workers are salaried employees who do not have the same degree of choice or control, and are unlikely to have the same negotiating power as highly skilled knowledge-based freelance workers. Businesses that confuse the two put the wellbeing of their employees at risk - and they miss the benefits that engaging freelancers could bring to them.
Chris Bryce
CEO, PCG - The Voice of Freelancing"
"I run a fruit-growing business and my wife runs a children's nursery. Neither of us is in control of weather or the whims of parents. Zero-hours contracts allow us to tailor our labour to prevailing events. All our staff get holiday pay and are entitled to sick pay as the law requires. The bottom line is that we can employ people on fixed-hours contracts when you, the consumers, are prepared to pay for them to sit at home while you work. We do not use these contracts as a way of denying anyone employment rights but to allow us to run a business which provides us, as well as our staff, with a reasonable living.
Andrew and Sue Chesson
Sevenoaks, Kent"
"I was on a zero-hours contract with a high street store while at university; it enabled me to work during the Christmas sales and over the summer months - but not during term time. It was a means to an end until I got a job in my profession and it helped me pay off my overdraft - but it's not a sustainable system for people requiring permanent, full-time employment to pay the bills.
Jenna Mahoney
Luton, Bedforshire"
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/05/zero-hours-dont-add-up