Employment: Zero-hour Contracts

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My noble friend makes a valuable point. Opportunities for zero-hours contracts allow, for example, students to enter the labour market. I have heard about instances of workers who used to work on the Tornado project using their legacy engineering skills in just such a way. They were particularly happy to do that. Also, zero-hours contracts particularly help the partially retired, who can work in a scaled-back manner.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

Does the Minister think that zero-hours contracts are reconcilable with the responsibility that employers have in all circumstances to respect the dignity of the people they employ?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

Certainly, the bottom line for zero-hour contracts—this is one thing that the consultation will look at—is how employers and employees enter into them. Although there is nothing wrong per se with the contracts, you get opaqueness where there are differences of opinion or a lack of transparency in the contracts between the employer and the employee.