Nick de Bois
Main Page: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)(11 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Umunna
No, I will wrap up now as I want to give others time to speak in the debate.
In short, we on the Labour Benches do not think that any old job will do. We aspire to full employment, and to secure and decent work that pays a wage that people can live on. That is our ambition for this country, which is why I hope that Members on both sides of the House will support our motion today.
Vince Cable
There are many industries of that kind, and I shall shortly enumerate them. I do not want to eulogise this system of employment because there clearly are problems in many sectors, but it has worked well in other sectors. That is why when it comes to rushing to prohibitions, we need to be careful about the unintended consequences.
Nick de Bois
The Secretary of State gives me the opportunity of raising the point that I was hoping to raise with the shadow Secretary of State. I would never have knowingly employed someone on a zero-hours contract, because I do not like such contracts and do not think them appropriate, but it is clear that many managerial, technical and education people are working on them. However, the suggestion in the Opposition motion of
“banning the use of zero hours contracts where employees are in practice working regular hours”
will catch people who are quite content to work on that basis, when, I imagine, the target is those who are abusing the system. That is why I would find it difficult to support the motion. I would welcome the Secretary of State’s comments on that.
Vince Cable
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and that is why a rush to ban certain forms of general practice could have serious negative unintended consequences. That is not to say that we should not do something, but a commitment to ban without having obtained the evidence would be highly premature.