3 Uncertainty
Flexibility:
an uneven relationship?
40. Workers on zero hours contracts
have no guaranteed hours and, as a result, may have little job
security. Supporters of zero hours contracts claim that the contracts
provide flexibility for employers and workers but all too often
the choice rests with the employer, leaving the individual waiting
for a call which, if it comes, can be at very short notice with
hours that are not ideal.[72]
This lack of certainty and choice can put a great deal of pressure
on individuals. As UNISON state in their evidence, "the need
to respond to calls to attend work, frequently at short notice,
disrupts life outside of work and places a particular strain on
families and arranging care for dependants."[73]
One in four zero hours workers who responded to Unite's survey
reported not being able to find childcare that suited their irregular
hours.[74]
41. Despite the strain, we heard that
individuals in need of work are unlikely to turn down opportunities
for work, no matter how disruptive they might be, for fear of
seeing their hours reduced or stopped.[75]According
to Unite, "there is clear evidence that workers are afraid
that if they turn down shifts then they may not get others".[76]
The CIPD found that 17% of individuals were sometimes penalised
and 3% always penalised if they were not available for work when
required.[77]
Box 6: PhD student - non-academic job
If you are needed, for example, and they call you up and say, 'Actually, we don't need you on that day of the week. We need you tomorrow,' and you can't do it, then maybe you will have no shift that week and you will not be paid. The thing is that, even as nonacademic staff, it makes you rely heavily on management, whether they think that that service should be cut down and you should be sent home without further warning, or your line managementthe person who gives you the hours. If they are not sympathetic, if you do not get on well with them, they can just not give you any hours or give you hours that you can't do.
Source: Justine Seran (Q409)
|
42. The threat, real or perceived, of
the potential for a reduction in hours can also cause individuals
to accept work when they are unfit to do so. Dave Watson explained
that this was particularly worrying in the care sector: "you
ask workers in that area and they will say, 'I have a cold. I
will probably still go out because I am worried that they will
not ask me back next week', and frankly you do not want your social
care worker turning up at your house with your granny, blowing
her nose and passing on the cold."[78]
Justine Seran told us that in the university sector, if a tutor
cannot do a class, "they will get another tutor on the same
course to take your hours and they will log your hours and they
will get the pay
Some people have been teaching the same
course, Post-Docs, for six years, and yet they don't have access
to sick pay; they don't have access to all that."[79]
Box 7: Former pizza worker
The zero hours contracts are used as a management tool to manage staff, i.e. staff they want rid of simply get their hours whittled away so they walk out. People are afraid to become sick or have other issues as they know the management often 'payback' through cutting of hours, or giving out shifts that don't suit.
Source: Anonymous (Unite the Union written evidence)
|
43. The Government believes that greater
transparency and improved guidance for individuals and employers
will correct the imbalance in the worker/employer relationship.[80]
We fail to see how such steps will prevent workers being penalised
if they decline work.
44. Some companies who use zero hours
contracts do arrange shift patterns weeks in advance in order
to ensure cover and provide a degree of certainty of work to the
individual, but many do not. The CIPD's survey found that 42%
of workers received less than 12 hours' notice of work and 10%
between 12-24 hours' notice.
Box 8: University worker
I can be kept waiting until as late as Thursday night before finding out whether I have work the next week. There is no way to predict whether I will get nothing, or 5 days' work, meaning all other things have to put on hold until the last minute.[81]
Source: Anonymous (Unite the Union written evidence)
|
Lawrence Wason, Divisional Officer at
Usdaw, told us he was aware of situations where groups of people
receive a text in the morning telling them to turn up for work,
only to find when they get there that there is not enough work
for all of them: "A percentage of them who do not secure
any work that day are then basically just told to go home. They
will have to cover the travel costs themselves at that point in
time, and, equally, they are not earning for that particular day."[82]
Box 9: Offshore worker
Sometimes you can turn up for your ticket and be turned away. You can actually turn up at the airport and the decision has been taken that you are no longer required because the job has been delayed or there has been a delay, so they just terminate the job completely.
Source: Jake Molloy, RMT (Q256)
|
45. The lack of guaranteed hours may
suit some individuals, such as students who appreciate the flexibility
to structure their work around study arrangements, or those for
whom income from a zero hours contract is supplementary to a more
permanent source of earnings.[83]
Almost half of the zero hours workers who responded to the CIPD's
survey reported they were satisfied with having no minimum contracted
hours, while 28% of zero hours workers who replied to Unite's
survey said that if they had a choice they would want to be on
a zero hours contract. Unite explained that the 28% figure was
similar to the proportion of workers who said they were eligible
for sick pay, drawing a link between levels of satisfaction and
access to employment rights although there is no direct evidence
to link the two groups of respondents.[84]
46. In most circumstances employers
are able to give reasonable notice of work yet over half of the
zero hours workers surveyed by the CIPD received less than a day's
notice. We find this lack of notice to be unacceptable and a symptom
of lazy workforce planning. We recommend that zero hours contracts
contain a minimum period of notice, both for work and the cancellation
of it, which would apply unless there were mitigating circumstances
which fell within specific criteria set out in the contract, such
as the requirement to provide cover for unexpected absence. It
should also be made clear that a worker is free to turn down work
offered within the notice period without suffering any detriment.
If work is cancelled at such short notice that travel expenses
have been incurred then those expenses should be reimbursed by
the employer plus an element of compensation for the worker's
time.
Finance
47. Zero hours workers tend to be low
paid and have little disposable income. This leaves them more
susceptible to shocks to their income.[85]
Over two-thirds of the zero hours workers who responded to Unite's
survey said being on a zero hours contract made them feel anxiousthat
there may be nothing or hardly anything next week.[86]
Mark Epstein explained, "a lot of people have fixed outgoings
and do not have significant fixed work, that creates a lot of
anxiety".[87]
Box 10: carer
A West of Scotland CAB reports of a client who has been working under a zero hours contract since April 2012 as a carer in the community. She has received 30 hours per week until approximately 2 months ago when the hours dropped significantly.Her employers are awaiting the outcome of a contract bid to the Council and are taking on many more staff. The new staff are jobseekers and the company receives government payments for taking them on.As a consequence all of the additional hours are being passed on to them, leaving existing workers with hardly anything. Some weeks the client works 4 hours, some she works 10, last month she had to borrow money to get petrol so she could drive to work. Today she spoke to her employer and asked to be paid off but the employer refused saying they would need to keep her on and hopefully the hours situation would get better in two months' time. The client cannot afford to carry on working there, but she is afraid that if she leaves her job voluntarily she will be sanctioned by the Job Centre.
Source: Anonymous (Citizens Advice Scotland written evidence)
|
48. The varying hours and pay which
zero hours workers experience can make it difficult for them to
budget and manage household costs. Citizens Advice Scotland told
us they had seen numerous cases in which clients on zero hours
contracts had experienced a sudden drop in their hours, making
it difficult for them to meet their basic living costs. This can
lead to debt and an inability to keep to debt repayment plans
which, according to Citizens Advice Scotland, can leave workers
with "little choice but to access high interest credit such
as pay-day loans."[88]
49. Workers on zero hours contracts
are also very restricted in what they can do to improve their
lifestyle, as Pat Rafferty explained to us:
If a young couple on zero-hours
contracts goes to a bank to try to get a mortgage for their first
house, they won't get it. The banks won't grant you a mortgage
on a zero-hours contract. You will not get a bank loan or credit
for a car. That builds into the anxiety as well. You are caught
in a bubble, and it does little for the economy in that sense.[89]
Normalising zero hours contracts through
model clauses and a Code of Practice will do nothing to help people
who need financial certainty in order to secure themselves a home.
The Government must pursue measures that will encourage organisations
to reduce their use of zero hours contracts and instead offer
contracts of employment that will provide workers with the security
they need.
Box 11: PhD student
Being enrolled as a post-graduate student and my partner not having a wage or income available to support both of us, it has been really difficult to get a lease for a flat because on my contract it doesn't say how many hours, how much I earn every month, and it's going to change every month.
Source: Justine Seran (Q425)
|
No need for uncertainty?
50. Zero hours contracts are often explained
as a means of granting employers the flexibility to cope with
fluctuations in demand for staffing or to provide cover for staff
absence. In reality, their use is not restricted to these purposes.
The CIPD's study of zero hours contracts shows that 20% of zero
hours workers are on broadly the same hours each week. The use
of zero hours contracts in these circumstances cannot be explained
by a need for flexibility. Dave Watson suggested that, for individuals
working regular hours, "there was no need for zero hours
contracts at all. Even with the 50% where there were fluctuations,
I would say that that is just lazy workforce planning."[90]
Many organisations are able to manage without using zero hours
contracts: local authorities have moved away from using them directly
and most major supermarkets are able to respond to business fluctuations
without them.[91] We
discuss below some areas where zero hours are used extensively.
HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR
51. While some higher education institutions
classify zero hours staff as 'workers' with the attendant minimum
level of benefits, most Scottish HEIs seek to give zero hours
contract holders 'employee' type conditions. But, even with parity
in terms of employment benefits, zero hours workers still lack
the guarantee of future work.[92]According
to the UCU, teaching staff on zero hours contracts will often
be without an income during holiday periods, including the long
summer break, without knowing if they will be allocated work in
the new academic year. Justine Seran explained that:
it is also mentally distressing
because you never know if you are going to be teaching next semester.
I have just finished classes last week, and I have no idea whether
I will be able to have an income in September. It will depend
on student enrolment; it seems as if the whims of other people
will determine whether I will be able to do a job, to be able
to work, so also mentally it takes a toll.[93]
52. The UCU argue that, because teaching
work is planned over a long period, at least a semester or a year,
it is difficult to understand the need for flexibility in the
provision of academic and related services.[94]
Mary Senior told us that there didn't appear to be any "justifiable
reason" why universities were using zero hours contracts
rather than permanent or fixed-term contracts: "it is just
lazy and too easy for them to give a zero hours contract".[95]
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) contest
this view:
HEIs have legitimate and longstanding
needs for a measure of flexibility in the workforce. Unpredictable
and changing patterns of student demand, the need for specialist
subject input and the practical need to provide cover for absences
or occasional peak activities all call for some flexibility in
staffing, both in teaching and in a range of support services
(such as catering, accommodation, library services, security,
exam invigilation, etc.). In many cases, those who do this work
are themselves students, while many others have a primary source
of employment outside of higher education.[96]
The UCEA assert that "variable
hours contracts" offer mutual benefits for employer and employee
while ensuring efficient HR procedures: "In addition, where
the small number of variable hours repeats from time to time,
this is an efficient administrative approach, avoiding the need
for repeated issuing of low hours contracts and all that goes
with that in respect of HR and payroll administration". Zero
hours contracts also allow universities to cancel courses at short
notice without incurring significant costs, as Justine Seran explained:
there have been cases in our university
of people on a zerohours contract being asked to design
and deliver a semester-long course and the course being cancelled
one week into it because there had been seven student enrolments,
which was below the eight-student limit; therefore, the course
was cancelled and that person got paid for one week, although
they had been preparing a semester-long course.[97]
53. The evidence from the UCEA shows
that, as well as allowing both parties flexibility, employers
also use zero hours contracts to minimise their HR costs. But
a reliance on zero hours workers can have potentially damaging
consequences for employers. The UCU set out examples in their
evidence:
· No
guaranteed staff for whole areas of the institution's service
provision;
· The
use of such contracts will affect the employers ability to attract
and retain high quality staff;
· Potential
reduction in continuity and quality of services provided;
· The
exclusion of such staff from robust recruitment, training, induction,
and CPD appraisals has the potential to affect the quality of
service provision.[98]
Mary Senior told us that she knew of
no one who was on a zero hours contract through choice.[99]
Box 12: PhD student
Rarely is our work treated by others as work, as a job with a contract attending, with rights attending to it. It is a shame, because it is not a hobby for us. A large majority of PhD candidates today are selffunded. We do not receive money from anyone, not even parents or research councils, so we count on it also as an income in parallel to our studies. Most of the time it is not how it is being presented or treated by the university.
Source: Justine Seran (Q382)
|
54. The UCU told us that it had been
difficult to get universities to see that zero hours contracts
are a problem and engage on the issue.[100]
Nonetheless, the University of Edinburgh has agreed to review
itspolicy on zero hours contracts with a view to ceasing their
use; the University of Glasgow has agreed, in principle, to review
its own'atypical workers' policy; and the University of Aberdeen
has set up a working group to review its use of zero hours contracts.
While we welcome the universities' recognition of concerns surrounding
the use of zero hours contracts, their reviews must not be used
as a delaying tactic. Universities are in receipt of large sums
of public money, the Scottish Government should use its influence
to see that Scottish HEIs commit to action and reduce their use
of zero hours contracts.
RAIL
55. The use of casualised labour is
commonplace within the rail industry. Zero hours contracts and
other forms of casual labour are used by Network Rail to help
develop and maintain the rail infrastructure.[101]
According to the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport
Workers (RMT), out of 88-90,000 Personal Track Safety (PTS) workers[102]
only 20-22,000 are directly employed by Network Rail, and just
10% of the remainder are directly employed by a contractor. Approximately
60,000 PTS workers are therefore casual labour employed through
agencies, on zero hours contracts or as 'bogus' self-employed.[103]
Irrespective of the contractual arrangements of employment, Network
Rail remains the ultimate paymaster for these workers.[104]
56. Network Rail is publicly funded
through a series of five-year 'control periods'. Mick Cash, Senior
Assistant General Secretary at the RMT, told us that a control
period represents five years of money and five years of work:
"In the five years from April of this year, [Network Rail]
are going to spend on operating, maintaining, enhancing and renewing
the railway somewhere in the region of £38 billion."[105]
Control periods allow Network Rail to plan their spend and work
over a long timeframe yet, despite the steady workstream, Network
Rail uses a casualised work force who have little job security.
In their January 2013 Strategic Business Plan Network Rail committed
to increase further the use of contractors:
Overall, headcount is projected
to reduce over CP5 (Control Period 5 2014-2019) by around 1,050,
which is equivalent to a reduction of 8% in total workforce. [...]
Track direct employees have the greatest absolute reduction of
around 800.
We will achieve efficiencies of
18% by the end of CP5 by making greater use of Tier 2 contractors
[...][106]
Mick Cash explained that Network Rail
carried a lot of vacancies in Scotland:
there is a 12% vacancy gap and they
have the funding arrangements. In one particular department-the
overhead line department-they have to renew certain parts of the
network, and in that department they are carrying 25% vacancies
because they won't fund up the vacancies. For that reason, they
don't have the staff-they've got the money-to do the work. Therefore,
they've got to use agency workers [...].[107]
57. Network Rail is reviewing the use
of zero hours workers in the rail industry including its own contracting
arrangements and how they influence behaviour throughout the supply
chain:
This review is still being carried
out with a view that, in 2014, Network Rail will implement a new
approach to how it uses labour-only agencies which will positively
influence the way that the wider industry contracts with its workers.[108]
The RMT union contend that the steady
flow of funding means that work could and should be taken in-house
by Network Rail. Doing so would bring a degree of stability to
the worker and allow them to benefit from the rights accorded
to employees.
58. We accept that zero hours contracts
may be justified in a limited number of circumstances which genuinely
require flexibility (on either side). We do not believe that the
level of flexibility demanded by employers such as Network Rail
and some Scottish universities is matched by their business need.
If large organisations such as most major supermarkets and local
authorities can cope without zero hours contracts then so can
many others. Reducing HR costs or improving administrative efficiency
are not acceptable reasons to deny workers the stability that
comes with being an employee with guaranteed, contracted hours.
Organisations must reduce their use of zero hours contracts and
Governments should use every lever they have to encourage this
change in behaviour.
72 CIPD, Zero hours contracts: myth and reality, Research
Report, November 2013; and TUC, Ending the abuse of zero hours contracts: TUC response to BIS consultation,
March 2014 Back
73
UNISON (ZHC0015) Back
74
Unite the Union (ZHC005) Back
75
Unite the Union (ZHC005); Educational Institute of Scotland (ZHC007) Back
76
Unite the Union (ZHC005) Back
77
CIPD, Zero hours contracts: myth and reality, Research Report,
November 2013 Back
78
Q275 Back
79
Q408 Back
80
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Consultation: zero hours employment contracts,
December 2013 Back
81
Unite the Union (ZHC005) Back
82
Q103 Back
83
Citizens Advice Scotland (ZHC003); UNISON (ZHC0015) Back
84
Q56 Back
85
Citizens Advice Scotland (ZHC003) Back
86
Q46 Back
87
Q46 Back
88
Citizens Advice Scotland (ZHC003) Back
89
Q52 Back
90
Q323 Back
91
Usdaw (ZHC0014) Back
92
Educational Institute of Scotland (ZHC007) Back
93
Q380 Back
94
University and College Union (ZHC002) Back
95
Q402 Back
96
Universities and Colleges Employers Association (ZHC0010) Back
97
Q359 Back
98
University and College Union (ZHC002) Back
99
Q404 Back
100
Q390 and Q445 Back
101
Q137 Back
102
PTS workers are those permitted to work on the track. Back
103
Q146; 'Bogus' or 'false' self-employment is often used to describe
the use of employment intermediaries such as payroll companies
to disguise employment as self-employment and thus avoid employment
taxes and deny employment rights to their workforce. In the 2013
Autumn Statement the Government promised to clamp down on companies
disguising employment as false self-employment. Back
104
Q146 Back
105
Q145 Back
106
Network Rail, Strategic Business Plan for England and Wales, January
2013, p35 Back
107
Q188 Back
108
BBC News, Zero hours concerns over rail safety, 10 March 2014 Back
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