It’s not so much the existence of Zero Hour Contracts that bothers me. As ksand has said, it works for students. It’s the rise in Zero Hour Contracts in an economy where there are tons of people who are desperate for work that bothers me. I worry that this kind of casual work will replace contracts where you are guaranteed a certain amount of hours because that is what suits a corporation’s pocket book. Also, I don’t think it’s fair to say, “It’s the employee’s choice though, no one is ever forced to accept these conditions.” In an economy like this, many people will accept conditions they never would have considered years ago just to be considered employed.
As an employer, a Zero Hour Contract might allow me to hire someone where I wouldn't normally though, that's the point. You have no idea how many roles wouldn't exist at all without ZHC and the employer will "make do" without someone as they can't commit to a permanent position with a set number of hours.
If the Government actually wanted to do anything about this kind of thing they'd reduce employer's national insurance contributions for small businesses which are through the roof at the moment, we'd love to raise wages but everything ends up costing us double, and our staff don't see the true benefit of the extra money we're paying.
Also, yes the economy is bad, mostly because of inflation, and pay restraint by employers (no raises, raises below the rate of inflation increasing cost of living) but there are actually more people employed at the moment then ever before in the last quarter of 2012 the UK reached record employment levels and the % of people who are unemployed fell to 7.5%, in terms of adults employed that's the highest levels since records began in the early 70s and vacancies have technically risen.
If ZHC are helping that, then I'm actually all for it, it depends on the person and the circumstance but I had a great experience on one, and if I had other commitments like a baby, I'd really like to have one again. I'm sure there's lots of people in the situation where they'd like to take time off during half term because of wages vs child care etc.
To say "If you don't like it, don't put up with it" os not an unfair thing, it's actually perfectly fair, it's a trade off, you get certain benefits, the employer gets certain benefits, you decide if you want them or if you want to remain unemployed or work somewhere else. Just because the other choice (i.e to remain unemployed) is less palatable doesn't make the choice unfair, just not an ideal situation for the chooser.
What if the choice is ZHC or no job offered at all? Where's the fairness then? If a ZHC creates a job an employer wouldn't otherwise have been able to create, then it is a good thing.
