Zero-hours contracts

The use of zero-hours contracts has risen sharply across all sectors, although the increase in some areas of the economy, such as retail, care-working or hospitality, is more pronounced than in others. These are contracts under which an employee is not guaranteed any hours and is only paid for hours actually worked.

Unions, including UNISON, pilots’ union BALPA and higher education union UCU, have been engaged in long-running campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of this new development. Some unions, such as the RMT, have drawn attention, in particular, to the resulting safety risks to the general public, aptly illustrated by the observation of the director of railway safety at the Office of Rail Regulation that: “Widespread use of notionally ‘self-employed’ staff on zero-hours contracts…is not conducive to the development of a safe railway” (RMT, The Great Rail Rip-Off, 2013).