Zero-hour contract

A zero-hour contract is a type of contract between an employer and a worker, where the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum working hours, while the worker is not obliged to accept any work offered. The employee may sign an agreement to be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours or times of work are specified. Depending on jurisdiction and conditions of employment, a zero-hour contract may differ from casual work. They are often used in agriculture, hotels and catering, education, and healthcare sectors. They are used to enable on call scheduling. This term is used to refer to on-call shift scheduling practices, even though it is just a contract which enables it.

While the term 'zero-hour contract' is primarily used in the United Kingdom, where around 3% of the workforce are on zero-hour contracts, casual and part-time workers are employed under similar terms in many countries.

In the UK, zero-hour contracts are controversial. British business leaders have supported them, stating that they provide a flexible labour market. They may suit some people such as retirees and students who want occasional earnings and are able to be entirely flexible about when they work. It has been reported that 60% of people on zero-hour contracts are happy with the hours they work. Trade union groups and others have raised concerns about the possibility of exploitation and the use of such contracts by management as a tool to reward or reprimand employees for any reason, or for no reason. They also raise concerns about how workers can adequately assert their employment rights or maintain decent employment relations.

In the United Kingdom, under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, workers operating under a zero-hour contract on stand-by time, on-call time, and downtime must be paid the national minimum wage for hours worked. Prior to the introduction of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 zero-hour contracts were sometimes used to "clock-off" staff during quiet periods while retaining them on site so they could be returned to paid work should the need arise. The National Minimum Wage Regulations now require that employers pay the national minimum wage for the time workers are required to be at the workplace even if there is no "work" to do. In the past, some employees working on a zero-hour contract have been told that they are required to obtain permission of their employer before accepting other work but this practise has now been banned under UK legislation enacted in May 2015. In [2011] UKSC 41, the UK Supreme Court delivered a groundbreaking judgment on workers who were on a zero hour contract. Lord Clarke held, at paragraph 35, that in employment relations which are characterised by inequality of bargaining power, the written terms of a contract may not in truth represent what was the contract in law. In 2013, the reasoning in Autoclenz was applied by Supperstone J in the Employment Appeal Tribunal to hold that a security guard who was given a zero hours contract was entitled to a stable working pattern: the contract's written terms were invalid. Together, this indicates that all zero hours contracts may be unlawful, and workers may be entitled to sue their employers for an unlawful deduction of wages if they are willing and able to work.

...
Wikipedia