An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi

Published in International Journal of Law and Society (Volume 4, Issue 2)

Received: 8 February 2021 Accepted: 18 February 2021 Published: 15 June 2021

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Abstract

The use of zero hours contract (ZHC) amongst employers in the UK continue to grow with little or no job security. There has been growing concern on how this type of employment contract is affecting workers socially, economically, health and otherwise. Existing research on ZHC focuses on low paid jobs, hence the importance of this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate how ZHC affect the worker with a focus on establishing the difference in experience between workers from across different sectors. Data for the study is obtained from conducting thirty-six semi-structured interviews with people working on ZHC. Participants for the study worked in health, education, hospitality, security, construction, and retail sectors, to understand if worker’s experience might differ based on the sector in which they work. The result demonstrated that the use of ZHC contract has spread to sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs as opposed to prevalence of ZHC in low skilled jobs as documented by previous research. Flexibility remained the key element of ZHC that all the workers enjoyed and would like to retain. However, the uncertainty and insecurity of the contract affects workers financial stability, social and family life, job quality and satisfaction; career progression and health. The negative impact of ZHC is largely the same with workers in lecturing job driven by insecurity and uncertainty. Although workers in the education sector (teaching staff) reported knowing their schedule for a semester or academic year, issues such as the lack of opportunities for career progression, no/limited training provided where required, stress and anxiety relating to the insecurity and uncertainties remain a growing concern. The use of ZHC contract in sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs is concerning and demonstrate how precarious the United Kingdom’s labour market is increasing becoming insecure.

Published in	International Journal of Law and Society (Volume 4, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
Page(s)	140-149
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Zero Hours Contract, Education, Employment Right, Worker’s Health, Health and Career Wellbeing, Employer Support

References

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Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi. (2021). An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers. International Journal of Law and Society, 4(2), 140-149. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi. An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers. Int. J. Law Soc. 2021, 4(2), 140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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AMA Style

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi. An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers. Int J Law Soc. 2021;4(2):140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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@article{10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21,
  author = {Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi},
  title = {An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers},
  journal = {International Journal of Law and Society},
  volume = {4},
  number = {2},
  pages = {140-149},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijls.20210402.21},
  abstract = {The use of zero hours contract (ZHC) amongst employers in the UK continue to grow with little or no job security. There has been growing concern on how this type of employment contract is affecting workers socially, economically, health and otherwise. Existing research on ZHC focuses on low paid jobs, hence the importance of this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate how ZHC affect the worker with a focus on establishing the difference in experience between workers from across different sectors. Data for the study is obtained from conducting thirty-six semi-structured interviews with people working on ZHC. Participants for the study worked in health, education, hospitality, security, construction, and retail sectors, to understand if worker’s experience might differ based on the sector in which they work. The result demonstrated that the use of ZHC contract has spread to sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs as opposed to prevalence of ZHC in low skilled jobs as documented by previous research. Flexibility remained the key element of ZHC that all the workers enjoyed and would like to retain. However, the uncertainty and insecurity of the contract affects workers financial stability, social and family life, job quality and satisfaction; career progression and health. The negative impact of ZHC is largely the same with workers in lecturing job driven by insecurity and uncertainty. Although workers in the education sector (teaching staff) reported knowing their schedule for a semester or academic year, issues such as the lack of opportunities for career progression, no/limited training provided where required, stress and anxiety relating to the insecurity and uncertainties remain a growing concern. The use of ZHC contract in sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs is concerning and demonstrate how precarious the United Kingdom’s labour market is increasing becoming insecure.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers
AU  - Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi
Y1  - 2021/06/15
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
T2  - International Journal of Law and Society
JF  - International Journal of Law and Society
JO  - International Journal of Law and Society
SP  - 140
EP  - 149
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2640-1908
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
AB  - The use of zero hours contract (ZHC) amongst employers in the UK continue to grow with little or no job security. There has been growing concern on how this type of employment contract is affecting workers socially, economically, health and otherwise. Existing research on ZHC focuses on low paid jobs, hence the importance of this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate how ZHC affect the worker with a focus on establishing the difference in experience between workers from across different sectors. Data for the study is obtained from conducting thirty-six semi-structured interviews with people working on ZHC. Participants for the study worked in health, education, hospitality, security, construction, and retail sectors, to understand if worker’s experience might differ based on the sector in which they work. The result demonstrated that the use of ZHC contract has spread to sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs as opposed to prevalence of ZHC in low skilled jobs as documented by previous research. Flexibility remained the key element of ZHC that all the workers enjoyed and would like to retain. However, the uncertainty and insecurity of the contract affects workers financial stability, social and family life, job quality and satisfaction; career progression and health. The negative impact of ZHC is largely the same with workers in lecturing job driven by insecurity and uncertainty. Although workers in the education sector (teaching staff) reported knowing their schedule for a semester or academic year, issues such as the lack of opportunities for career progression, no/limited training provided where required, stress and anxiety relating to the insecurity and uncertainties remain a growing concern. The use of ZHC contract in sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs is concerning and demonstrate how precarious the United Kingdom’s labour market is increasing becoming insecure.
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi

York Business School, York St John University, York, United Kingdom

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Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi. (2021). An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers. International Journal of Law and Society, 4(2), 140-149. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi. An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers. Int. J. Law Soc. 2021, 4(2), 140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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AMA Style

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi. An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers. Int J Law Soc. 2021;4(2):140-149. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21

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@article{10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21,
  author = {Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi},
  title = {An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers},
  journal = {International Journal of Law and Society},
  volume = {4},
  number = {2},
  pages = {140-149},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijls.20210402.21},
  abstract = {The use of zero hours contract (ZHC) amongst employers in the UK continue to grow with little or no job security. There has been growing concern on how this type of employment contract is affecting workers socially, economically, health and otherwise. Existing research on ZHC focuses on low paid jobs, hence the importance of this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate how ZHC affect the worker with a focus on establishing the difference in experience between workers from across different sectors. Data for the study is obtained from conducting thirty-six semi-structured interviews with people working on ZHC. Participants for the study worked in health, education, hospitality, security, construction, and retail sectors, to understand if worker’s experience might differ based on the sector in which they work. The result demonstrated that the use of ZHC contract has spread to sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs as opposed to prevalence of ZHC in low skilled jobs as documented by previous research. Flexibility remained the key element of ZHC that all the workers enjoyed and would like to retain. However, the uncertainty and insecurity of the contract affects workers financial stability, social and family life, job quality and satisfaction; career progression and health. The negative impact of ZHC is largely the same with workers in lecturing job driven by insecurity and uncertainty. Although workers in the education sector (teaching staff) reported knowing their schedule for a semester or academic year, issues such as the lack of opportunities for career progression, no/limited training provided where required, stress and anxiety relating to the insecurity and uncertainties remain a growing concern. The use of ZHC contract in sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs is concerning and demonstrate how precarious the United Kingdom’s labour market is increasing becoming insecure.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - An Investigation on the Widespread Use of Zero Hours Contracts in the UK and the Impact on Workers
AU  - Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi
Y1  - 2021/06/15
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
T2  - International Journal of Law and Society
JF  - International Journal of Law and Society
JO  - International Journal of Law and Society
SP  - 140
EP  - 149
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2640-1908
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20210402.21
AB  - The use of zero hours contract (ZHC) amongst employers in the UK continue to grow with little or no job security. There has been growing concern on how this type of employment contract is affecting workers socially, economically, health and otherwise. Existing research on ZHC focuses on low paid jobs, hence the importance of this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate how ZHC affect the worker with a focus on establishing the difference in experience between workers from across different sectors. Data for the study is obtained from conducting thirty-six semi-structured interviews with people working on ZHC. Participants for the study worked in health, education, hospitality, security, construction, and retail sectors, to understand if worker’s experience might differ based on the sector in which they work. The result demonstrated that the use of ZHC contract has spread to sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs as opposed to prevalence of ZHC in low skilled jobs as documented by previous research. Flexibility remained the key element of ZHC that all the workers enjoyed and would like to retain. However, the uncertainty and insecurity of the contract affects workers financial stability, social and family life, job quality and satisfaction; career progression and health. The negative impact of ZHC is largely the same with workers in lecturing job driven by insecurity and uncertainty. Although workers in the education sector (teaching staff) reported knowing their schedule for a semester or academic year, issues such as the lack of opportunities for career progression, no/limited training provided where required, stress and anxiety relating to the insecurity and uncertainties remain a growing concern. The use of ZHC contract in sectors such as education (lecturing jobs) which are generally considered as high skilled jobs is concerning and demonstrate how precarious the United Kingdom’s labour market is increasing becoming insecure.
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download