When you read all those promises of 1,000 jobs to be created here and 500 jobs there, first realise that this is rarely the true number (in East Devon recently such promises led to only half the number of jobs originally promised at Premier Inn, Exmouth, for example) and the read this article on zero hours contracts – a favoured method of employment in many companies:
“Employers counter any criticisms of the use of zero-hours contracts by arguing that employees like the flexibility. The ONS findings, and discussion with those on the contracts, suggest otherwise. In Liverpool, a young mother with two children told me over a cup of tea how both she and her partner were on zero-hours contracts. He had originally planned to meet me at their house as well, but had been offered more hours and felt that the precarity of the contract meant that if he turned it down, he would deliberately be overlooked for future shifts. By the end of the week, he would have worked 70 hours.
The mother worked in a shop, alongside sales assistants on regular contracts. Her work ebbed and flowed with the seasons: more work at Christmas and over New Year, with sales and the festive run on gifts, and more shifts over the summer and Easter breaks, when the staff on regular contracts took their children on holiday. During school breaks, both rarely spent a whole day with their children, but the fear of the weeks where there was a shortfall in rent meant they’d never turned down a shift, even when sick. She told me that they were desperate for permanent contracts offering economic stability and a routine for their children, but were told they were lucky to have anything. …
… A Guardian investigation revealed appalling working conditions at a Sports Direct warehouse, where over 80% of the staff were employed on zero-hours contracts. The conditions included labyrinthine rules on uniforms, pay docked if staff were a minute late, and pay rates that were effectively below the minimum wage. It was able to get away with this because staff without guaranteed pay are effectively powerless, and have to operate at the whim of their employer. Parents who were too scared to take time off work told schools to keep children in when they were sick, rather than risk losing their job.
That’s the fear of zero-hours contracts: that one day, you find your hours have dropped to zero and you’ve effectively been sacked. You can’t challenge your employer over their decision, because effectively, contractually, they were doing you a favour by giving you any shifts at all. A man in his 40s in Redcar told me outside the jobcentre that he had been given no shifts by his construction firm for eight weeks. The jobcentre adviser insisted he was employed, so he wasn’t entitled to jobseeker’s allowance. If he left the job, he’d be deemed to have quit voluntarily … so wouldn’t be entitled to jobseeker’s allowance. This paradox is precisely why so many people are against zero-hours contracts: they make low-paid workers completely powerless, and let their bosses act with unaccountable impunity. Everyone deserves a fair wage for a fair day’s work, and to be able to depend upon it.”
East Devon Watch 