Zero Hours Contracts

littleme

250,000th poster!
Lovely lovely people of Stafford Forum....what do you know about Zero hours contracts?

In Nov/Dec of 2013 I started work for a small family company on a casual basis with a zero hours contract....I was to work as & when they needed me & also cover the holiday of other staff if it was convenient for me....brill! The pay was very good, the hours were good, I got on with everyone there - & the husband worked there too - bonus!

However, in the middle of last year my husband left to persue another job.....at the same time my work just stopped :(

I figured maybe they felt awkward employing me, when he had gone, so didn't do anything about it, figured that was it & just tootled on with my life....

Until about a week ago when I received a P60....

This seems to mean that I still work there....does it?
Why would they keep me on the books when I haven't had any work since last summer?
What does it mean for me?
Is there anything suspicious about this, if there is then what should I do? What are my rights & are there any advantages to being classed as employed....even if I'm not?


Thank you x.
 

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
My daughter took on a job at the Card Factory just before Christmas which was a Zero Hour contract. Basically at Christmas they tried to say "see you maybe around Valentines time".
She had nothing to live on so I told her to explain to the benefits office that she was quitting and claiming jobseakers as she couldn't be expected to live on nothing... they agreed. She's managed to sort herself out with another little part time job since thankfully, but these Zero Hour contracts should not be allowed in my opinion.

AFAICT they can keep you on a zero hours for years just incase. As it stands there's no law against it. Tell them you quit and see if they even remember that they even have you on their books still ;)
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Thanks for the reply @wmrcomputers ...I'm not sure I want to quit until I know if there's any advantage to still being employed there.....& we don't get any kind of benefits that it would affect ...

....I'm with you in thinking that zero hours shouldn't exist though ;) It was convenient for me at the time, but would be useless if that's what had gone on forever....
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
As an aside, Balfour had all the candidates who were standing in Stafford up the school recently for a debate. Dear daughter asked if I had any good questions for them. I told her to ask if any of them had ever had a zero hours contract job? Needless to say that question was vetoed by one of the teachers as inappropriate!!!
 

Maryland

Well-Known Forumite
An employer has to provide you with a P60 at the end of each FY during which they've employed you, no matter what the contractual relationship may be at the time in question.

0-hours contracts may be lawful, but they're immoral. However, we've just returned a Tory government with a mandate to do whatever its chums in the boardrooms want it to do, so expect to see more people trying to live on them.
 

Laurie61

Well-Known Forumite
The issuing of a P 60's by company's is usually done end of tax year and is for your own records, if you fill in a tax return you can take info off it. It is not an indication you still work for them.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
I'm really dreading that when I do go *back to full time work, I'm going to end up with a zero hours contract, it seems that more & more employers are only offering zero hours.

*the deal was that I stayed at home till the small child goes to high school - only 1 more year to go.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
The issuing of a P 60's by company's is usually done end of tax year and is for your own records, if you fill in a tax return you can take info off it. It is not an indication you still work for them.
Ahhh I didn't know that....but they haven't released me....& I haven't resigned...
 

Laurie61

Well-Known Forumite
it seems that more & more employers are only offering zero hours.

.

If a state of near or full employment is reached in UK It might ultimately be unproductive for company's to keep doing this? Taking somebody on and giving appropriate training only to have them leave does not make much sense, If offering better employment contracts/perks can retain staff and save constant retraining and staff turnover.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Be careful here because if they still employ you but are simply not providing you with any work, that could affect your ability to claim any thing should you do so/need to. Ditto if you resign.

I'd contact them and ask them straight.
Very valid advice....I hadn't thought of that either...although there's probably zero chance of me/us ever claiming anything (husband is that against claiming any type of benefit that when he was made redundant he would rather of seen our house reposessed than ask for any help!)

You lot are all great!
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
If a state of near or full employment is reached in UK It might ultimately be unproductive for company's to keep doing this? Taking somebody on and giving appropriate training only to have them leave does not make much sense, If offering better employment contracts/perks can retain staff and save constant retraining and staff turnover.
This was exactly why I was taken on, up until then they were having to use agency staff at great cost & having to train the agency staff each time work came up.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I'm really dreading that when I do go *back to full time work, I'm going to end up with a zero hours contract, it seems that more & more employers are only offering zero hours.

*the deal was that I stayed at home till the small child goes to high school - only 1 more year to go.

That's not inevitable. We don't have a single zero hour contract where I work amongst close on 4,000 staff, ranging from minimum wage jobs up to managers earning over 100k a year. If you don't want a zero hours contract don't apply for jobs that offer them...........simples :). If everyone did this they'd soon have to change their ideas, companies need staff after all!! They are immoral and staff should boycott any job offering them and consumers should also boycott companies known to use them, i.e SportsDirect.

*Before anyone starts, I realise there is the odd situation where a zero hours contract is beneficial to both parties. I suspect those instances are a tiny percentage of the number of zero hours contracts imposed on people desperate for a job.
 

Apricot

Well-Known Forumite
That's not inevitable. We don't have a single zero hour contract where I work amongst close on 4,000 staff, ranging from minimum wage jobs up to managers earning over 100k a year. If you don't want a zero hours contract don't apply for jobs that offer them...........simples :). If everyone did this they'd soon have to change their ideas, companies need staff after all!! They are immoral and staff should boycott any job offering them and consumers should also boycott companies known to use them, i.e SportsDirect.

*Before anyone starts, I realise there is the odd situation where a zero hours contract is beneficial to both parties. I suspect those instances are a tiny percentage of the number of zero hours contracts imposed on people desperate for a job.

The problem is, if you need a job asap and most of the jobs on offer are zero hours contracts, you end up taking one as a temporary measure. Someone I know lost his job last year and it was shocking how much worse were the quality of jobs (nearly all minimum wage, a lot of zero hours) compared to seven years ago when he was last looking. And the zero hours contracts were seriously taking the you-know-what, cancelling at the last minute, sometimes after he'd actually left for work, sometimes then phoning back and asking him to come in anyway. Eventually he got a job, not zero hours, but at three-quarters his former wage.

I agree with you about consumers boycotting companies that use zero hours contracts. For example, I no longer use Sports Direct. The problems here are a) there are so many companies abusing their staff, I forget which I should be avoiding and b) it gets complicated if the offending company does not deal directly with the public. One of the particularly bad zero hours companies that I mentioned supplies major supermarkets. It's impossible for the consumer to vet every stage of the supply chain, which is why the Government should be taking steps to prevent it.
 

Ecker

Well-Known Forumite
Given that the slack gobs of the UK voted in a tory government and granted them a licence to
mercilessly take the piss, it will be little short of a miracle if folk are not made to pay to attend
a place of business.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
It is the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard, an't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon.



The Slasher is back hiding in his concrete bunker

Such a brave man
 
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
A friend of mine was telling me today how he had recently failed to convince a friend of his, a serving police officer, that zero-hours contracts actually existed.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
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