Zero Hour Contract Epidemic

Zero Hour Contract Epidemic.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released a study that polled 5,000 businesses in the UK and found that 1.4 million employees were working on zero hour contracts.

There is no set amount of hours for a zero hour contract, meaning employees could potentially work no hours at all and would not be obligated to work either. Workers who are on zero hour contracts can hold more than one of these contracts meaning they could work two jobs.

As a result an the number of employers using zero hour contracts has seen a massively increased.

There are worries that this could get out of control with Labour Leader Ed Miliband describing the rise in zero hour contracts as an “epidemic”. However, a complete ban on zero hour contracts was ruled out by business secretary Vince Cable as they offer flexibility to employers.