Zero hour contract and training repayment at the same time?

Paul456_2

My fiance has been offered a carer job on a 0 hour contract today.  Initially she was excited about the job, however there are a few aspects that have us concerned.  Firstly it's a 0 hours contract and discussion of actual work hours have been vague, with the manager there trying to re-assure her that its "flexible".  With the nature of the type of job at the moment there doesn't seem much chance that there will be no hours, but our worry is what happens after the pandemic is over.  Googling the name of the company makes it seem like the problem is more likely to be too many hours than too few.

On top of this, she was booked in for training straight away, this begins tomorrow (she's had no time to prepare for this).  Before seeing the full contract (she currently only has a Conditional Offer to sign) she has to sign an agreement to pay for the course if she leaves before 12 months, scaling down as time goes down.  It seems odd to me that you'd be expected to sign this off before even signing a contract for the job.  The Conditional Offer also seems odd, that she's signing to say she's going to sign a contract, but is accepting that she'll complete the training or pay the money back before seeing an actual contract.  The email also stated a date to complete the online section of the training by Friday, but she's going to be in her physical training courses until then, the manager told her not to worry and that she wouldn't be expected to complete it for Friday, but I'm worried that it still says that in her Conditional Offer.

Neither aspect on their own is too concerning, but having the 2 together seems worrying, she could end up tied into a contract giving her few or no hours of work and not being able to leave without paying for a training course. Is there anything she can do to protect herself from this sort of situation, or are you expected to take these sorts of risks with this kind of job?  It feels like she's going to be signing a contract which opens her up to being used and having to pay to get out of it again, which surely isn't how employment is supposed to work.

We also have plenty of questions about how 0 hour contracts even work (such as holiday payments or pension) when you don't even have an estimate of weekly hours as neither of us has worked on one before and we have little time to research before her course begins in the morning.  But I guess that's for another thread or for us to search on our own.

ElefantEd

Well, if it's a zero hours contract, she is free to refuse any hours that are offered, surely? So even if she got a different job she wouldn't have to leave this one until 12 months had elapsed, she simply declines all their offers of work, just as they don't have to offer her any hours. Therefore she is in no danger of having to repay any money for the training course. Zero hour contracts work both ways!

sharpe106

As above seems pretty pointless to put that into a zero hour contract, you just decline the hours. Just out of interest how much did they say that would be? But with a lot of care work jobs it is either not enough hours or too many hours.