what is the deal with so many zero hour contract vacancies?

fitnessguy1

hi guys,

i have been applying through temp agencies for work, but so far they're all zero hours work. I applied for one job (warehouse) which was good wages, overtime available and other benefits to the job too.

it sounded very good at the time, but then the agency tell me it's zero hours. I am unsure of working a zero hour job as I want to be certain of the hours i'm working one week to the next.

is a zero hours job worth pursuing?

lillie421

It really does depend on you as a person and your responsibilities, For example, do you live on your own, do you have bills to pay that come out at the end of each month, do you have a certain amount of money you need to be paid. If so, a zero hour contract would not be ideal as like you said, you can never be certain about how many hours you are working and therefore how much money you are earning. The employer can give you as many hours as they need you to work or as few.
If you don't have many things to pay for and this job is just money for the time being then go for it but if not, I don't think it would be the smartest idea.
Good luck!!

fitnessguy1

lillie421 wrote: »

It really does depend on you as a person and your responsibilities, For example, do you live on your own, do you have bills to pay that come out at the end of each month, do you have a certain amount of money you need to be paid. If so, a zero hour contract would not be ideal as like you said, you can never be certain about how many hours you are working and therefore how much money you are earning. The employer can give you as many hours as they need you to work or as few.
If you don't have many things to pay for and this job is just money for the time being then go for it but if not, I don't think it would be the smartest idea.
Good luck!!

yeah that's the thing i do have bills to pay and things to pay out. the problem is, so much of the work seems to be zero hours.

i found an agency of one job i applied for and this is the what the reviews say about the company from previous/current employees which doesn't fill me with hope.

https://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/Templine-Employment-Agency-Ltd/reviews

it's difficult to know whether to trust these reviews or not. one of the reviews said they worked for 100 hours and only paid £50+ which is criminal if true. have you ever heard of cases like this with employers?

lillie421

I have heard of things like that and as sad as it is, it is starting to become more common these days. There are lots of scams that you need to watch out for. What websites are you looking at when applying for jobs?
As you mentioned that you have bills you need to pay then I don't think a zero hour contract would be the best thing for you at all, it's just not guaranteed money and that is what you need. When you have responsibilities, you can't take risks as the last thing you want is to get into debt and have to get a loan or borrow money off family.

[Deleted User]

At this time of year most are employing people just to cover Christmas so they are either temporary or zero hour contracts - If you have no commitments or no need to hit a certain income that is fine.

What I hate at the moment are all the Self employed jobs that are either paid or commission only and they still choose your hours etc! Why people apply is beyond me?