Cambridge Researchers Say Zero-hours Contracts Are Part Of The Huge Damage To Work

by Benson Agoha

Financial insecurity, anxiety and stress are some of the worries faced by British labour force and these arise as a result of abuses inflicted by `smart' managers such as those that embrace zero-hours contracts.

 

According to a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge, zero-hours contracts are actually only `one of a wide number of flexible employment practices that are abused by managers.'

 

 

* Workers protest against Zero-Hours Contracts which contributes to stress related discomfort.

 

It comes after a study of two supermarket chains in both UK and US revealed that a range of flexible employment practices that go beyond zero-hour contracts "cause widespread anxiety, stress and ‘depressed mental states’ in workers as a result of financial and social uncertainty, and can block worker access to education as well as much-needed additional income.".

 

The Cambridge study say the findings are included in a report submitted to the government consultation on zero-hours contracts at the request of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

 

The Researchers say the Government consultation was too narrow and advised a wider review of damaging employment practices and that employees should be granted the right to make statutory claims work additional core hours as well as have a say in the scheduling of their hours.

 

The study was carried out by Cambridge University’s Department of Sociology, based on interviews with UK and US supermarket workers, union officials, as well as months of shop-floor observation and said "strategies such as extreme part-time contracts, key-time contracts and frequent labour matching, as well as ‘at will’ zero-hours employment, are all experienced as a form of job insecurity that causes untold stress for thousands of employees and their families." 

 

Zero hours contracts are contracts that impose no obligation on employers to offer work, or for workers to accept it and most zero-hours contracts will give staff  'worker' employment status.

 

In addition the worker under this type of contract will have the same employment rights as regular workers, but they may have breaks in their contracts and this affect rights that accrue over time.  They are also entitled to annual leave, the minimum wage and pay for work-related travel in the same way as regular workers.

 

So what is the fuse about? Well, the problem is that this type of employment contract between an employer and a worker does not assure of a certain amount of (minimum) hours in a given period and by implication, the worker can not be sure of how much to expect in advance, planning difficult.

 

Designed to provide assistance to certain group of employees, the zero-hours contracts appear to be having negative results instead, the researchers found.

 

Dr Brendan Burchell, Head of Department and co-author on the report said “So-called ‘flexi-contracts’, whether that’s zero, eight or ten hours – none of which can provide a living – allow low-level management unaccountable power to dictate workers’ hours and consequent income to a damaging extent that is open to incompetency and abuse.”
 

Alex Wood, PhD candidate under Dr. Burchell and co-author of the report said “It is the invidious way that vulnerable people at the low end of the labour market – such as in supermarket retail – are forced to live their lives that requires scrutiny.”

He said “High unemployment and tough economic times, combined with ever-increasing flexible working practices that favour corporations, is creating a culture of servitude – trapping people in vicious cycles of instability, stress and a struggle to make ends meet," adding that “the policies the government is looking at completely misunderstand the nature and scale of the problem.”
 

The researchers  found that in California there is an ‘At Will Employment’ policy which means that "all the US supermarket workers are on de-facto zero-hours contracts."

 

But although Supermarkets in the UK do not make use of zero-hours contracts, the researchers say that they achieve similar worker flexibility through a combination of extreme part-time and key-time contracts.

 

One worker who took part in the study said the uncertain hours make it difficult to accept the contract because it puts a lot of stress on people and makes looking after the children or paying mortgage impossible.
 

They called for the widening of the government consultation on zero-hours contracts by the  Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

To real the full report by Cambridge researchers, please click here >>> [UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE STUDY ON ZERO-HOUR CONTRACTS].

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* Source: University of Cambridge.