Legislation on zero hours contracts
The coalition government has drawn up draft legislation — the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill 2014 — to tackle one feature of zero hour contracts: exclusivity clauses.
These are contract terms that prevent someone working elsewhere — even if the employer does not promise to provide any hours — and only a small minority of ZHCs contain this kind of term.
Commentators have suggested that the proposed new law would be very easy to circumvent through careful drafting of contract terms.
The government launched a follow-up consultation in October, asking for feedback on ways to prevent employers evading the exclusivity ban — for example by offering a fixed contract for just one hour — showing that ministers are already well aware of the scope for avoiding the legislation.
The TUC argues that the weak nature of the response shows a government that knows casualisation is a problem, but “lacks the courage to tackle exploitative working practices properly”.
The ban will benefit a tiny minority of the workforce. The government’s best estimate (in its impact assessment) is that around 5,500 workers will be “enabled” to get a second job working an extra four hours a week.
A new publication from the Institute of Employment Rights, which looks, in particular, at different approaches taken in other countries — Re-regulating zero hours contracts — is reviewed in this issue.
www.ier.org.uk/publications/re-regulating-zero-hours-contracts