By Mark Smulian | 28 August 2013
Zero hours contacts are increasingly common in higher professional roles and should be the subject of a major inquiry, according to the Work Foundation.
The think-tank said the current review, launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable earlier this month, would be inadequate as a means of discovering how widely the contracts’ are used.
The foundation’s report Flexibility or insecurity? exploring the rise in zero hours contracts, published today, said official statistics on the contracts are unreliable.
Author Ian Brinkley said calls to ban zero hours contracts for reasons of bad employment were misplaced, as was the view that they are a uniquely exploitative form of contract.
His analysis showed that those on zero hours contracts were more likely to be part of the permanent workforce than in temporary employment relationships.
Brinkley, who is also the foundation’s director, said: ‘There are vast numbers of workers who are unaware they are on zero hours contracts.
‘We still don’t know how many have taken them by choice and how many out of necessity. Nor do we yet understand the true reasons why employers are making more use of them.’
He called for an inquiry to enable an accurate analysis that would help to devise effective policy measures to protect workers most vulnerable to potential abuse.’
According to the report, zero hours contracts are not widespread across all low-paid sectors.
While their use was common in hospitality – affecting nearly 20% of workplaces – this fell to just 6% in retailing.
Use was, however, increasing among care workers, up from 50% in 2008/09 to 60% now.
Some 43% of those on zero hours contracts were in the top three occupational groups ¬– managers, professionals and associate/technical staff.
Of the remainder, 17% were in manual skilled or semi-skilled jobs and a further 17% in care, leisure or sales jobs. Just over one in ten were unskilled and the remainder had administrative posts.
Some people remained long term on the contracts with 44% having spent two or more years with the same employer on a zero hours contract.
