any hope zero hour contracts will end soon?

LittleVoice

Aquamania wrote: »

So do I take it the job you went to an interview for was not actually a zero hours contract position anyway? :huh:

I don't read it like that. In my book "near enough guaranteed" means not actually guaranteed (ie contractual) but highly likely to be the minimum on offer each week.

Aquamania

LittleVoice wrote: »

I don't read it like that. In my book "near enough guaranteed" means not actually guaranteed (ie contractual) but highly likely to be the minimum on offer each week.

No one is really guaranteed work, no matter what contract they have. Near enough guaranteed is about the most anyone can hope for.

sniggings

Aquamania wrote: »

So do I take it the job you went to an interview for was not actually a zero hours contract position anyway? :huh:

No you can't take it that it wasn't a zero hour contract...it was a zero hour contract, going by what some have said here, the employer is misusing what zero hours contracts were meant for, but as the term "zero hours" doesn't have a legal definition, then they are free to abuse their use, the government know they are being abused but choose to do nothing to stop them, as my link in post 16 shows, they like taking about how bad they are but fail to act.

savvy

Denning. wrote: »

In theory zero hour contracts are supposed to work the other way. It is the employee who says whether they will be working or not. That kind of goes to pot when it is low skilled workers (easily replaceable) and where we have high unemployment.

That certainly wasn't the case when I went for an interview as a support worker for autistic adults with a charity. They told you when you would have hours, and also scheduled how far you'd have to drive to the first appointment. Sooooooooo glad I never got that post!!! Would've been a nightmare, but they didn't tell you until you were in the interview!

sniggings

savvy wrote: »

That certainly wasn't the case when I went for an interview as a support worker for autistic adults with a charity. They told you when you would have hours, and also scheduled how far you'd have to drive to the first appointment. Sooooooooo glad I never got that post!!! Would've been a nightmare, but they didn't tell you until you were in the interview!

it was a charity :rotfl:

a lot of them don't pay when you travel from one appointment to the other :eek:

LittleVoice

Aquamania wrote: »

No one is really guaranteed work, no matter what contract they have. Near enough guaranteed is about the most anyone can hope for.

It's not about being guaranteed work. It is actually about being guaranteed paid hours. Hours can be guaranteed - it's the hours of work which are put in the contract.

tir21

Zero hour contracts should be unlawful when the amount of work that needs doing does not affact whether someone needs to still be in the workplace

Im on a zero hour contact and work the exact same hours on a 4 week rota

I always work my full 8 hour shift. I never get told to leave work early, because my job means that there might always be a patient that a doctor needs taking to

His can that be zero hours?

There is no way any tribunal would agree with this being a zero hours contact if it went to tribunal

auldblerk

The government know about the zero hours fiasco and are not going to step in as all they are concerned about are statistics, not peoples livelihoods, the bottom line is you won't get sanctioned if you don't take a self-employed job and from what I've read here, the same for a zero hours job.
It seems to be down to us to read between the lines of a vacancy or find out at an interview before taking the next step.

ellanutella

They're here to stay imo. I was the proud owner of 2 zero hour contracts until I got sacked from one for being ill. It was a temp Christmas job for pocket money but still ridiculous how contracts can go from 8 hours guaranteed with holiday pay to zero hours, no holiday pay in the space of a few years.
My 'real' job is probably one of the best you can hope for, above minimum wage, sick and holiday pay but a reluctance to make it permanent means there's a two tier staffing system with older employees having benefits I can only dream of.

anamenottaken

ellanutella wrote: »

They're here to stay imo. I was the proud owner of 2 zero hour contracts until I got sacked from one for being ill. It was a temp Christmas job for pocket money but still ridiculous how contracts can go from 8 hours guaranteed with holiday pay to zero hours, no holiday pay in the space of a few years.
My 'real' job is probably one of the best you can hope for, above minimum wage, sick and holiday pay but a reluctance to make it permanent means there's a two tier staffing system with older employees having benefits I can only dream of.

Zero hours actually means that paid holiday accrues with all worked hours. (Worse is where contractual hours are low but the worker regularly does overtime because overtime does not necessarily accrue paid holiday, only the low contracted hours.)