Survey finds more workers in Britain on zero-hour contracts

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Survey finds more workers in Britain on zero-hour contracts

(Xinhua) 08:22, August 06, 2013

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LONDON, Aug. 5 -- Britain has more than one million workers on zero-hours contracts, according to a survey made public by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) on Monday.

The survey revealed that 3 to 4 percent of Britain's workforce are on zero-hour contracts, which means that workers are not guaranteed work one week to the next. The figure is higher than the 1 percent calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the official statistics agency.

The CIPD's survey, involving 1,000 employers, found that zero-hour contracts were most common in the hotel, catering and leisure industry, accounting for 48 percent of the total. Education was next at 35 percent followed by healthcare at 27 percent.

Out of these respondents, one in seven felt that their employer gave them insufficient hours of work to provide a basic standard of living.

On average, respondents worked 19.5 hours per week, although 38 percent described themselves as being employed full-time, typically working 30 hours or more a week.

By age groups, people employed on a zero-hour contract were twice as likely to be among either the youngest workers aged 18 to 24 or oldest workers of over 55.

CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese said while zero-hour contracts should be examined further, it should not be assumed that their use was automatically wrong.

A zero-hour contract is an employment agreement which means an employee must be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours or times of work are specified. The employee is expected to be on-call but receives payment for hours worked only.

"Zero hours contracts, used appropriately, can provide flexibility for employers and employees and can play a positive role in creating more flexible working opportunities. This can, for example, allow parents of young children, carers, students and others to fit work around their home lives," Cheese said

"However, we need to ensure that proper support for employees and their rights are not being compromised through such arrangements. Zero hours contracts cannot be used simply to avoid an employer's responsibilities to its employees," he added.

It was reported that British Business Secretary Vince Cable was planning a review of zero-hour contracts. "While it's important our workforce remains flexible, it is equally important that it is treated fairly," Cable said Monday.

"This is why I have asked my officials to undertake some work over the summer to better understand how this type of contract is working in practice today," he said.