Martin, Alice and Williams, George and Atay Budak, Asli and Florisson, Rebecca (2024) Zero Choices : Swapping zero-hour contracts for secure, flexible working. The Work Foundation, London.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
At a time when the UK faces record sickness levels and persistent worker shortages, there is a pressing need to reform employment law to better reflect the realities of modern ways of working in the 21st century. New research by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University has found a record 1.1 million working age people are on zero-hours contracts in the UK, as their main form of employment. Zero-hour contracts are an enduring example of insecure work and the trade-offs faced by people at the sharp end of the labour market. Regulating against the exploitative use of zero-hour contracts should serve as an important component of a wider package of reforms promoting secure work in the next Parliament. In this policy brief we investigate the contemporary use of zero-hours contracts in the UK and examine policy options for reform from comparable countries, with a particular focus on how to introduce regulation in a way that extends contractual security and guaranteed hours while maintaining opportunities for flexibility.