Whether zero hour contracts are good or bad is an age-old debate, made even more relevant by the new government’s recent plan to ban “exploitative” contracts. A zero hours contract is simply a contract without set working hours, allowing workers to select when they work from options made available by employers.
There are clear advantages to these contracts, especially for young people like students. In many cases, there is no other way in which students would be able to hold down a job for long, since student timetables, aren’t exactly compatible with a regular working 9-5 schedule.
On top of flexible working schedules, zero hour contracts allow employees to work however much they choose to. If you need to work you can pick up any and all shifts available, and if you just want an extra bit of spending money you can opt for less. It sounds like these contracts have something for everyone, especially the wide variety of people who make up the student population, so why is there such a debate around them?
Despite the positive side of zero hour contracts, there are several disadvantages to consider. Firstly, as much as you can choose when and how much to work, zero hour employers aren’t required to give shifts to their employees. The result is risking having a contract but not actually being able to work. This lack of shifts results in underemployment, which especially worker’s unions are concerned about, as it can create risky situations. Not only can people be forced to work, and therefore earn less than they need to survive, but it has also been reported that this causes many to earn less than required to qualify for statutory sick pay or benefits. This means employees, both students and not, who work to sustain themselves may encounter stretches of time where their income is nil, as they are too ill to work and cannot receive financial aid.
Many, including the government, view this as a form of exploitation that needs to be actively stopped. On top of this, some claim that the constant bombardment of optional shifts means employees can feel pressured to overwork themselves. Especially students, who have not been in the job market for long, are at risk of sacrificing their academics out of fear that they will otherwise “lose out” on future opportunities.
Arguably, employers have the power when it comes to zero hours contracts. Particularly when it comes to students, who typically aren’t the most financially stable members of society, the appearance of control given by these contracts masks a lack of real power.
However, ultimately the exploitation that organizations aim to remove affects students less than other zero hours contract employees. Students can still benefit from them since they are far easier to fit around our schedules than other jobs. Despite the risks and imbalance of power they hold, for a lot of young people zero hour contracts are a positive. At the end of the day, it’s often better and easier to have a zero hours contract than to not have a job.
“Credit War on Want_TC3” by War on Want is licensed under CC BY 2.0.