Zero Hours Contracts Essay

In her book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz describes the lives of ten busboys, she referrs to as the Lions, living and working in the Chicago area. Gomberg-Muñoz provides an insight into the lives of these undocumented Mexican workers. They share their stories of crossing the border, the affects of their absence on family back in Mexico, and the daily struggles of living in a country without the benefits of citizenship. The Lions, as well as other undocumented Mexicans, have to face Americans stereotypes every day. Probably the biggest stereotype the Lions contend with is the belief that all Mexicans are hard workers.

Ability to arrange workday around personal obligations for example instead of working the normal shift from 8.00am to 5.00pm people can choose to work from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm and use that hour left for personal matters.

After the global financial crisis in the 1970s, British labour market experienced a great shift in the organization and the new distribution of human resources (Hughes and Fergusson, 2004:95). It is undeniable that this economic recession had brought huge challenges to British economic development. The managers of organizations realized the significance of rising to the occasion in order to remain competitive power, which resulted in the emergence of flexible time work systems (ibid: 96). More specifically, zero-hour contracts have been applied. Pardey (2013:6) points out that zero-hour contracts are labour contracts between employers and employees which offer uncertain work and unfixed working hours. According to Tovey (2013), the study from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), nearly 3.1% of British labour force has

The state of the New York doesn’t deprive the rights of the employers to give contracts which relate to the type of the business. However, it protects them since it gives them the capability to determine number of hours which is comfortable to an employee. Actually, this gives advantage to employers since it increases the chance for the employees to be productive. The Fourteen Amendment also protect the employer and should strictly be followed since it gives the right to determine number of hours but responsibly.

* Employees would not have to work as many overtime hours to fill orders because there would be substantial inventory during heavy demand months

“An investigation to explore how the management of zero hours contracts affects the employees of Abercrombie & Fitch – London”

Managers also routinize schedules which reinforces the similarities between OAH and a machine. Managers clearly set working hours for all hourly employees at five days a week (Monday through Friday) for eight hours each day. All hourly employees must take a fifteen-minute break in the morning, a one-hour lunch break during the afternoon, and a fifteen-minute break in the late afternoon every working day. Employees must show up precisely on time, and employees must not leave work even a minute early, or they could face disciplinary

Zero hour contracts on the rise could be attributed to the economic downturn in recent years, as employers struggle to find ways to reduce the costs of their businesses to be able to keep them viable “greater labour market flexibility helps the economy to respond to changes in demand and output, which in turn enables wages and employment to adjust easier”, according to Jowett et al (2014)

The scheduling of hours of work is undoubtedly one of the major social problems of industrial society. Statistic estimates that 30% of Canada's workforce are involved in some kind of shiftwork. Of those, 33% work irregular shifts, just under 30% work rotating shifts, 17% work long term evening shifts, 10% work on call, 3% work split shifts, 3% work long term night shifts and just over 3% are classed as "other". Present estimates tell us that before the trend slows, fully 35% of the workforce will work some type of shiftwork (Siroonian 123). Companies are feeling the need to maximize their efficiency by spreading their operating costs over 24 hours. However, on the other hand, working other than the standard

During the industrial revolution, our country's factory workers spent up to twelve hours a day with miserable and sometimes deadly working conditions, all while being severely underpaid. In 1914 Henry Ford not only doubled their pay, but shortened the workday to eight hours. He was met with significant improvement in productivity and satisfaction from the workers, that has lasted up to this day. However, many, myself included, are still unsatisfied with the eight hour work day.

When at work there are always those certain coworkers that you personally can’t stand; working less hours than you do now will still allow you to still make the money you need to pay bills and save in general. You will no longer have to deal with those annoying coworkers.

This paper focuses on the effect that temporary employment such as zero hour contracts have on the wellbeing of employees, it gives a brief definition of what a zero hour contract is, and how they have changed throughout the years eg how they were used in previous years before being called zero hour contracts, why the use of zero hour contracts is on the rise in the UK business market, and investigates the benefits and detriments of these contracts in regards to employees, it will also look at the financial benefits to the employers who use these contracts, and the type of culture that surrounds the employees who are employed on these contracts, It will also investigate

The second mentioned tool is using overtime which is considered as making some of workers work for an additional 40 hours a week. The obvious benefit of

A major advantage to the employer is the increasing power that he/she gains over the employees with zero hour contracts (Griffin, 2013). Thirdly, it is to a great extend the best backup plan to a sudden change and the solution to last-minute events (Pyper and Dar, 2015). It is also the resolution to temporary employees’ shortages (Hotel Industry Magazine, 2014). Other than that, zero-hour contract gives the employer the opportunity to employ more, which results to producing more (Hotel Industry Magazine, 2014). Due to cheap labor, it allows the coverage of various geographical locations at the same time (Freeman, 2015). This means more supply, which equals more profit. Before changes in the organisational behavior, elders were not allowed to work, which meant that their skills would not be used (Norton Rose Fulbright, 2013). However, with zero hour contracts, elders’ skills are retained and employers can benefit from their experiences (Shoesmith, 2015). In many cases, zero hour contracts employ a pool of trained and talented staff who know how the business cooperates and its procedures (Shoesmith, 2015). Consequently, this type of contracts is profitable to the employers. With this being said, zero hour contracts have no disadvantages on employers.

Employment or labor laws have been developed to facilitate smooth relationship between employers and employees. Employment laws provide rules and regulations that should govern both the employer and the employees in their places of work. Employment laws discuss issues related to child labor, wages and salaries, retirement, working conditions, compensations, incentives and employment benefits among others. The major objective is to ensure the employer does not exploit the employee and on the other hand, the employee honors the terms and conditions of the job as presented by the employer.