ZERO HOURS CONTRACTS – OUR VIEW

You may have noticed we stayed rather quiet when the subject of zero hours contracts first crept into the media spotlight back in August. It was a purposeful silence, as at that time, we simply felt the matter had been exacerbated and had unfortunately fallen victim to ‘band-wagon’ mentality from the majority of the public.

That isn’t to say that the arguments for and against weren’t valid of course – far from it – there just hadn’t yet been enough research behind it to present a balanced and measured argument…until now.

A new report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has revived the topic using meaningful results from a survey of more than 2,500 workers, dismissing previous statements that vilified this type of employment and called for restrictive regulation. Instead, its focus was on the overall understanding and implementation of these contracts, highlighting any areas for improvement for employers.

REC Director of Policy, Tom Hadley, rightly summed this sentiment up with a comment of his own: “Rather than seeking to add further layers of regulation and getting bogged down in a debate over different types of contracts, the focus for government must be to ensure that workers have the right skills and awareness to progress within the jobs market – whatever the type of contract they are on.”

The rules and regulation surrounding the flexible work environment can be a minefield for both employer and employee. Last month marked the two year anniversary of the introduction of Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) - which were also initially met with scepticism. Yet while recent reports show that the legislation incurred significant cost for recruiters, demand for temporary staff is still strong, with 96% of employers planning to increase or maintain their temporary workforce over the coming year.

Couple this with 60% job satisfaction of zero-hours workers (comparable to the average UK employee) and we can begin to understand the real benefits behind a contractually diverse workforce. It certainly gets the ACR seal of approval!