Zero hour contracts warning for NHS

[Northerner]

The NHS is using an increasing number of zero hour contracts which could lead to "casualisation" of the workforce in the health service, Labour has warned.

Almost 70,000 NHS staff are employed using such contracts, under which workers are not guaranteed a certain numbers of hours, figures suggest.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham raised concerns that the NHS was increasingly favouring casual contracts over offering permanent roles.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...-hour-contracts-warning-for-nhs-29413789.html

 

[ypauly]

I would love to see a legal challenge against one of these contracts as a "zero" hour one to me means there isn't a contract. There can only be a contract if it contains employed hours.

Of the total abolition of these things would be better.

 

[LeeLee]

These contracts are vastly cheaper than using temp agencies that operate on exactly the same basis. The agencies charge roughly double what the employees earn. Of course it would be preferable to employ permanent, full time staff for all posts, but recruitment is a lengthy process. And where do you get someone to cover for sickness/holiday/vacant posts during a recruitment freeze? At the Trust I used to work for, every post advertised had to be authorised by the Executive Committee, which takes time. How do you keep the service going while you wait?

P.S. It's expensive to make someone redundant when the higher-ups turn off the financial tap, so using a zero-hours contractee to fill a vacancy in a vulnerable service could be described as having a sound financial basis - unfortunately to the detriment of the employee's job security.

 

[ypauly]

These contracts are vastly cheaper than using temp agencies that operate on exactly the same basis. The agencies charge roughly double what the employees earn. Of course it would be preferable to employ permanent, full time staff for all posts, but recruitment is a lengthy process. And where do you get someone to cover for sickness/holiday/vacant posts during a recruitment freeze? At the Trust I used to work for, every post advertised had to be authorised by the Executive Committee, which takes time. How do you keep the service going while you wait?

P.S. It's expensive to make someone redundant when the higher-ups turn off the financial tap, so using a zero-hours contractee to fill a vacancy in a vulnerable service could be described as having a sound financial basis - unfortunately to the detriment of the employee's job security.

My previous employer used agencies and zero hour, agencies for short term gap filling and zero hour for long term jobs which once came with a proper contract.

The last two agencies my previous employer used charge ?1.25 for themselves on top of the hourly rate there was other add ons like holiday pay fee but it was nothing like double.

The contract if used to fill short term gaps would be fine but my previous employer was filling full time roles with them, indeed some on these contracts had been there 3 years and at quieter times would be dropped without a care in the world.

Going to be quiet on Friday easy tell three people not to come in. These still have all the usual bills to pay yet every now and then they would be the ones that suffer with the employer knowing they can't really go anywhere else as most employers are using the same tactics of crap contracts or agencies.


What used to happen was we would get agency staff in and if they were any good we would keep them whenever possible. either paying the agency a small fee or keeping them on agency books for 3 months to eliminate the fee.


They obviously save the employer a lot of money and keep the workforce flexible but there are better ways of doing that without causing unnecessary hardship to people that just want to work.

 

[LeeLee]

They obviously save the employer a lot of money and keep the workforce flexible but there are better ways of doing that without causing unnecessary hardship to people that just want to work.

I agree completely - but having worked in an NHS HR department, felt compelled to explain the rationale. By the way, I believe that after a certain length of time (2 yrs?) on regular hours via a zero hours contract, the employee does gain the same rights as a permanent employee.

 

[Copepod]

Zero hours contracts are nothing new - I was on bank nurse contracts in Newcastle upon Tyne, about 2 shifts (10 hrs total) per week while studying at university (1989 - 92), then did more / longer shifts during vacations and after graduating when I couldn't get other work. We even had to pay for postage of our payslips, as we worked in any of 4 hospitals, so there was no place for pigeon holes. We weren't offered many training sessions, but if possible to attend, were not paid wages for attending.