Are Zero Hour Contracts Legal in Northern Ireland

There is a need to improve the clarity of social security rights, particularly if Universal Credit is introduced in Northern Ireland. Universal Credit provides a real-time assessment of applicants` situation, but with the problems with its implementation when it is introduced in England, assurances on access to benefits would help at-risk workers at variable working hours with income and budgeting. As an employer, you must assume and understand your responsibility to the people you hire under a zero-hour contract with respect to their labour rights such as the national minimum wage and leave rights. See who should get the minimum wage and know how much vacation you need to give your employees. The bill sets out several reasons why an employer can reject a request for accommodation within a weekly hours range: however, you must be aware of the well-being of each person you employ under a zero-hour contract. The bill deals with situations in which a ZHW is called upon to work but does not receive work or less than one hour of work. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) estimated in 2018 that there were 14,000 people in Northern Ireland on zero-hour contracts, which represents about 1.3% of the workforce. There is no legal definition of a zero-hour contract in labour law in Northern Ireland or the United Kingdom. In general, a zero-hour contract is a contract in which you do not have to guarantee the person`s work and the person is not obliged to accept a job you offer. “This bill will replace zero-hour contracts with group-hour contracts, which will guarantee workers minimum and maximum hours of work each week.

If the employer can prove that the hours actually worked were incompatible with normal operation, he may refuse to do so. You can also refuse if the zero-hour worker`s working hours showed little real consistency. It would create time bands for the workers concerned. Once put on tape, the bill suggests that workers should then be given weekly working hours that fall within that range, giving workers more stability. “However, workers with a zero-hour contract can often be required to be readily available, but have no guarantee of work. Unpredictable and unreliable work patterns can lead to anxiety in workers, as well as income uncertainty, making it harder for some to make long-term financial plans. The bill establishes the proposed bands from A to H. Once a worker is placed in a band, he or she must receive hours of work each week that fall into that band. The banding approach is quite new and obviously aims to reduce the use of inappropriate zero-hour contracts where employees are constantly working for their employer, but without the security of guaranteed hours.

By providing for “banding”, the Irish proposals recognise that some employers have different needs for hours from week to week and cannot systematically guarantee an exact number or hours of work per week. One of the most controversial aspects of zero-hour contracts has been the use of exclusivity clauses that prohibit workers from working for another employer. Of course, this is less of a problem if it is a full-time contract, but without guarantees of paid hours of work, an employee would be at a serious disadvantage if they were unable to subsidize weeks where fewer hours are available by working in another job. It is estimated that this applies to about 9% of zero-hour contracts. The data also allows us to identify employee characteristics: according to the ONS, women are about two-thirds more likely than men to be a zero-hour worker. About 6% of those under 25 are zero-hour workers (compared to about 1.7% of those under 25-64). Zero-hour workers are also more likely to work in sectors such as hospitality (where 10% are employed on these contracts), transportation, healthcare, and government. Nevertheless, the government is likely to introduce an employment bill to implement some of the other recommendations in its plan. The TUC will continue to push for a ban on zero-hour contracts to be included in this legislation. As far as we know, a zero-hour worker with sufficient service may require his employer to provide him with a contract that guarantees him a certain number of minimum and maximum hours week after week, which is largely the same as the hours he has actually worked in the last 3 months.

In a statement, the TUC said the law gave British unions a new impetus to oppose zero-hour contracts. TUC analyses show that 850,000 workers in the UK are trapped in such deals. Zero-hour contract workers do not have guaranteed and fixed working hours, although they often have regular working hours. Zero-hour contracts often do not reflect the true nature of the employment relationship. Other problems are: you should keep in mind that when there are long-term zero-hour contracts in which work is regularly offered and accepted, there is a risk of difficulties in terms of the person`s actual employment status with the zero-hour contract.