Zero-hours Contracts

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Ian Lucas (Wrexham) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that wages have been cut by about 5% in the three or four years since this Government came to power, and that it was the bankers who started it? More importantly, does he agree that zero-hours contracts are a throwback to the 1930s when miners and dockers had to turn up to work not knowing whether they would get a job. This is a modern veneer on an old, tried and tired system that was chucked out many years ago.