Sunday, January 4, 2015

Zero-hours contracts 'cancer' will have spread to 1.5MILLION British workers this year, unions claim

Pizza Hut, JD Wetherspoon, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Sports Direct and McDonald’s all use the unfair deals


ZERO Hours MAIN
The “cancer” of exploitative zero-hours contracts will spread to 1.5 million British jobs this year, warn union bosses.

High-street giants such as Pizza Hut, JD Wetherspoon, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Sports Direct and McDonald’s all use the unfair deals.

The controversial contracts mean staff can have no minimum hours of work or any sick, holiday or redundancy pay.

Workers do not know from week to week how much they will earn. They can be fired with minimal notice and very few rights to claim unfair ­dismissal.

More than one in ten employers are ­using such contracts, which are most likely to be held by women, young ­people and pensioners. In hospitality and ­social care businesses an ­estimated one in five is on such a deal.

Zero-hours workers are unable to ­get ­mortgages or credit with banks and other lenders because of the ­ uncertainty of their ­employment and income.

The number of people on ­restrictive deals has ­increased from 134,000 in 2006 to, according to the Office for National Statistics, 250,000 in 2013.

ONS figures from ­autumn last year put the number at 622,000. Workers often have more than one zero-hours job.

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