Zero Zero Society

[d000hg]

you were not guaranteed a minimum number of hours a week?

You were required to pay for your own uniform?

You had to pay for your own van leased from the employer at a premium?

etc.

I don't know, that's rather what I was asking! Were those things not allowed before the turn of the century or were they merely not commonly exploited (as I agree they are today)?

[vetran]

I don't know, that's rather what I was asking! Were those things not allowed before the turn of the century or were they merely not commonly exploited (as I agree they are today)?

I suspect they were allowed, the problem as you say is that they are now being institutionally exploited as there are more people than jobs at the bottom end and that is most definitely down to New Lie.

[VectraMan]

I suspect they were allowed, the problem as you say is that they are now being institutionally exploited as there are more people than jobs at the bottom end and that is most definitely down to New Lie.

I suspect you'd find there were more such jobs in the past, and that there's nothing new in this story other than the fact it's become one of Labour's tactics for painting the Tories' slow-but-getting-there economic recovery as negative.

[Project Monkey]

You are on a Zero hour contract of employment ?

Or is your Ltd in a contract for services with your client?

these are very different things.

Now who's being obtuse?

[Platypus]

This is interesting reading,
Zero-hour contract - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[vetran]

Now who's being obtuse?

not sure I called you obtuse but lets run with it anyway.

1. annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.
"he wondered if the doctor was being deliberately obtuse"
difficult to understand, especially deliberately so.
"some of the lyrics are a bit obtuse"
2.(of an angle) more than 90° and less than 180°.

The legal difference between a zero hour employee and a ltd company providing services (not of service) is quite marked. The level of opportunity is dramatically different. So comparing a contractor selling their skills to someone stuck on a zero hours contract with a supemarket or chicken plucking farm it is fairly easy to see the difference.

The financial impact of being on NMW versus £20 - £100 an hour is huge and changes your options dramatically.

I suppose I could physically be at 92 degrees from you.

[sal]

I think it's worth noting that not all employers abuse the zero hour contracts. Some of them are using them in order to offer genuinely flexible terms for their employees and the employees are happy with those terms. Nevertheless they are included in the statistics that paints all zero hour contracts black.

Work force abuse has always been there in one form or another and i agree that the growing concern about zero hours contracts needs addressing/regulation. But by the love of god can we stop with the carpet "bombing" in legislation and start using more targeted and precise approach that only eliminates the existing problem and is not creating more issues and red tape elsewhere.