lit review zero hour contracts

* Some people who work for businesses or other types of organizations have the capacity to bind the organizations to contracts.

A contract of employment is a type of a contract used in labor law to attribute rights and responsibilities between parties to a contract (Blum, 2007). On the one end stands an "employee" who is "employed" by an "employer". A written employment contract is a document that someone and their employee sign which sets forth the terms and conditions of the employment relationship (Tepper, 2011). Many rules, exceptions and considerations apply when dealing with employment contracts.

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

Workers will also work to the terms of a contract, they will usually carry out the work personally. Workers will include casual work, agency work, freelance work and seasonal work. Workers are entitled to some employment rights including, national minimum wage, holiday pay, protection against unlawful discrimination, the right not to be treated less favourably if they work part-time. See point 2 Appendix

The report is based on responses collected from more than 1000 employers and 2000 employees, considered UK workforce only and was conducted in early January 2012. The report presents an in-depth view of the types of flexible working provisions offered by employers including part-time working, working from home, flexitime, compressed hours, career breaks/sabbaticals, mobile working, term-time working, secondments, annual hours and time off work in the community.

A fixed term contract employee is someone that will work for the organisation for a period of time, this could be for a certain project, maternity cover or at a peak period for the business. The organisation will provide an employee with a contract stating the purpose of the role with start and end dates

The lengthy recession meant that employers could not afford to keep permanent staff and now they are understandably concerned about committing to full or even part-time contracts. Rodgers, E, (2013). The greater use of zero hours contracts is taking place against a background of falling real wages, high levels of workplace fear regarding redundancy, and unfair treatment for a significant minority, this

From day one of the temporary assignment the worker is entitled to the same access to job vacancies as permanent members of staff and collective facilities such as staff canteens, childcare facilities and transport services. A third type of employment status is volunteer workers who are individuals who carry out tasks or services of their freewill and without payment, often, though not necessarily, for charities. Volunteer workers are not in a contractual relationship with an organisation as there is not intention to create legal relations, no financial remuneration and no enforceable obligations on either side.

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

* Nearly 80% of workers say they would like to have more flexible work options and would use them if there were no negative consequences at work

It is certainly true that the current law defining the employment status of ‘workers’ is uncertain, as it is wholly inflexible to deal effectively with cases of non-standard forms of employment, atypical workers, for example: agency workers, part-time workers, fixed-term workers, as required workers and homeworkers. Thus, reform is necessary to redress the concerns of lack of legal certainty in relation to this area of the law.

Recruitment agencies are popular but unlike the Job Centre’s they charge commission for recruiting staff on a temporary or permanent basis. This means that the employer may have a chance to see how an employee is likely to work out by putting them on a three, six, twelve-month fix term contract initially. This is

The employment status has always been lying on the heart of the UK labour law. It is the most fundamental jurisdictional point as the status of an individual is very significant for legal and financial reasons. Most importantly the status of an employee will enable one to enjoy the statutory protections rights but not for the independent contractors.

wage rates, holidays, sick leave, overtime and other minimum conditions for a whole industry or type of job.

Part time employee – An employee is considered as a part time employee who works for minimum of 16 hours and a maximum of 32 hours in a week.