Pay premium on zero-hours contracts?


Companies in the UK could be forced to pay a premium rate for short-notice work, the government’s employment practice adviser has suggested.


Matthew Taylor, who is leading a review into labour rights, said employers would be incentivised to guarantee work in advance if they were made to pay more for every “non-guaranteed” hour.


In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, he claimed that a higher rate on zero-hours contracts could stop “lazy” employers from offloading risks onto workers, and stop them demanding “one-sided flexibility”. He said: “The problem in the labour market is not security of work, it’s security of income," he said.


Taylor added: “We’ve been hearing today about people in the social care sector who are told ‘be ready to leave the house at seven in the morning,’ then a phone call [comes to say]: ‘No, we haven’t any work for you today’.”


The number of people employed on zero-hours contracts in Britain has grown by 101,000 over the past year — and now represents 2.8% of all people in employment, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.


www.rte.ie/news/2017/0415/867924-zero-hour-contracts