What can also happen, quite frequently, is that something can mutate into an employment contract with neither party, but particularly the employer, wanting that to happen and it can really happen by the back door and it has happened because the working pattern has developed without the written documentation being updated and in fact without anyone noticing. So while the employer might think they have got an "as and when" zero hours contract in fact what they have got is an employment contract and they are employing somebody with full employment rights. Pinsent Masons do recommend that employers regularly audit atypical working arrangements because what can be appropriate and apt when you enter into the arrangement often isn't six or twelve months down the line because things might well have moved on.
Pinsent Masons Employment Law Bulletin also includes some interesting discussion around the ‘pros and cons’ of zero hours contracts for both the employee and the employer.
The ONS to survey businesses on zero-hours contracts
29 August 2013
From autumn 2013, one of The Office for National Statistic’s (ONS) monthly business surveys will include some questions on zero-hours contracts in order to obtain robust data directly from employers.
These questions will be asked on a quarterly basis with the first results expected to be published in early 2014.
To ensure that users’ needs are met, ONS will undertake a short consultation exercise in September 2013 to clarify the data requirements.
The current estimate is based on an ad hoc analysis of employee responses collected in the regular Labour Force Survey (LFS). While the LFS is the largest household survey of any kind conducted in the UK, this question depends on employees knowing and correctly reporting their terms of employment.
ONS press release
Labour pledges to ban zero hours contracts
11 September 2013
Speaking to delegates at the TUC Congress in Bournemouth, Ed Miliband has promised a ban on zero hours contracts.
Union news reported that the Labour leader said:
“The worst of these practices owe more to the Victorian era than they do to the kind of workplace we should have in the 21st century. It’s wrong. And the next Labour government will put things right.
We’ll ban zero hours contracts which require workers to work exclusively for one business.
We’ll stop zero hours contracts which require workers to be on call all day without any guarantee of work. And we’ll end zero hours contracts where workers are working regular hours but are denied a regular contract.
And that means security, not insecurity at work….”
CIPP Policy News Journal
16/04/2014, Page 100 of 519
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