A zero-hour contract is a type of contract used in the UK by an increasing number of firms which does not commit the employer to provide any specific work for the employee, who agrees to be available for work as and when required. Only hours that have been worked are paid for, making earnings completely unpredictable. This has been compared to the traditional way in which stevedores or dockers used to stand every morning expecting to be picked up by freight ship managers to load and unload, a practice most people thought well and truly left in the past by modern day employment law. Zero hours contracts are, however, legal, and defended by the neoliberal establishment as a “flexible” option, whilst trade unions and workers denounce it as a new form of exploitation.
Itinerant workers such as fruit pickers and other seasonal temporary labour tend to be subject to similar working conditions, creating a mass of migrant labour without any job security or workers rights. But the new trend is being used by other employers, from shoe shops to fast food outlets, from health and elderly care to Buckingham Palace. Recent statistics suggest that up to one million workers may be in this situation, and although students and pensioners may prefer this flexibility, those with families and mortgages are clearly handicapped by it.
During the Thatcher government it was openly stated that high unemployment was desirable as it pushed down labour costs and the power of the trade unions. However it increased the welfare bill. Zero hour contracts create a grey area as people are in theory employed, but in practice may not be. Cheaper labour who are more desperate, but not claiming benefits.
According to the Office for National Statistics UK incomes have fallen on average by 13.2% since the recession began in 2008 through a combination of inflation and drop in real earnings, whilst other developed economies are now recovering. The UK has also been more successful at eroding workers rights than other European counterparts.
