Personally, Owl would settle for detailed timesheets and diary information showing exactly what our MPs are doing and, more importantly, with whom.
3 thoughts on “MPs should be on zero-hours contracts: don’t turn up, don’t get paid”
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East Devon Watch 
They could even have a trial first and just apply it to relations who are employed by the MP.
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Later in this article, they try to explain what MPs do spend their time on:
“What is an MP paid for?
Despite these images suggesting hardly any MPs work, it is important to note that the time an MP spends in the Commons is actually very little. Most of their time is spent dealing with constituent cases, working on parliamentary bills they are supporting, and taking part in select committees on various subjects. ”
Let’s take Hugo Swire as an example. Since he became a back bench MP he has not attended many debates (certainly I cannot see him in any of the pictures used in this article), answered neither of the two emails I sent him, is probably not working on constituency cases or parliamentary bills, and AFAIK he is not on any select committees.
Pro-rata payment by the hour for any week where they work less than 40 hours sounds like a good idea for Hugo.
P.S. One other point to take note of – zero hours contracts are the opposite of payment only for the hours you work. Zero hours contracts mean that the employer does not guarantee you any work – the staff can turn up as often as they like, but there may be no work for them in which case they will not be paid. Being paid only for the hours you work – i.e. not being paid if you don’t turn up is normal for hourly paid staff on any sort of contract. (And yes, I do understand about holiday and sick pay etc.)
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In other words a zero hours contract is little different to the long discredited way in which dock-workers used to be treated and as such are a national disgrace. They also produce highly dubious employment statistics.
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