Discuss - Business Zero Hours Contracts -

Should zero-hours contracts, where the employer is not obliged to provide minimum hours, be banned?

Alliance Party "Zero hour contracts may suit certain individuals, but it should not be used by businesses to the detriment of their staff." - Alliance Employment and Learning spokesperson, Chris Lyttle MLA. "Zero-hours contracts will not be banned in Northern Ireland, following a review of their use by Employment Minister Stephen Farry." - Source: BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-31528731

Conservative "When companies employ staff on zero hours contracts and then stop them from getting work elsewhere, that’s not a free market – it is a fixed market. In a Britain that everyone is proud to call home, people are employed, they are not used. Those exclusive zero hours contracts that left people unable to build decent lives for themselves – we will scrap them." - David Cameron, Speech to Conservative Party Conference 2014. http://press.conservatives.com/post/98882674910/david-cameron-speech-to-conservative-party

DUP East Antrim DUP MLA Alastair Ross said that it is important employees are not discriminated against, but added that the flexibility zero hour contracts offer to small businesses in Northern Ireland is hugely important to the economy, and that we should gather a strong evidence base before coming to any conclusions on whether legislation would be desirable. Source: DUP http://www.mydup.com/news/article/ross-zero-hour-contracts-can-be-lifeline-to-small-businesses

Green Party Green Party has called on the Coalition Government to ban zero-hours contracts. "Zero-hours contracts should be banned, and I'd urge every shopper to consider the list of companies that use them, and consider whether they want to give their shopping cash to them." - Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader. http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2013/07/31/green-party-leader-natalie-bennett-zero-hours-contracts-should-be-banned/

Labour We will ban employers from requiring zero-hours workers to be available on the off-chance that they'll be needed. Source: Labour Party

Liberal Democrat Vince Cable has today introduced a bill to ban exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts in order to give workers more choice. Zero-hours contracts do not just benefit employers, but employees too. Students, older people and single parents who value flexibility have the chance to turn down work at inconvenient times and top up their income when they need extra cash. With the ban on exclusivity clauses, employees will have more freedom to boost their income further. Source: Liberal Democrat Party http://www.libdems.org.uk/cracking_down_on_zero_hours_contract_abuse

Plaid Cymru "More opposition to zero hours contracts and cuts in the public sector." Source: Plaid Cymru, http://www.partyof.wales/easy-read-manifesto/

SNP "Zero-hours contracts are not always appropriate and present many people on benefits with real challenges in managing their income. The UK government will be forcing people into uncertain employment and restricting the ability of claimants to seek training or more stable and sustainable employment. " Source: SNP, http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2014/may/jobseekers-forced-work-zero-hours-contracts

UKIP UKIP will take action to prevent major employers using such contracts in an exploitative way against employees who lack other options. We will devise a code of conduct - with the threat of legislative action if it is not observed - that will give large employers a duty to offer a fixed hours contract to anyone who has worked on a zero hours contract for a year. Such employees will be under no compunction to accept a regular hours contract if it does not suit them, but must be offered the choice. Source: UKIP, http://www.ukip.org/ukip_employment_spokesman_jane_collins_today_heralded_an_array_of_new_party_policies_designed_to_help_working_people

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