South West has Highest Rate of Zero Hour Contracts in the UK
Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK do not have the security of any guaranteed working hours; however, new figures show that the majority of these people are local! 2.8% of the employed population in the South West are on zero hour contracts – the highest rate in the country.
That amounts to 73,000 people in the South West being on zero hour contracts. This has increased over the last year throughout the UK too – with 1.8 million people being on zero hour contracts this year compared to 1.4 million last year.
Although it is good for the business community to have the flexibility of staff on zero hour contracts, it is not good for the employees; it takes away their stability in the workplace and security within their life – always questioning whether they can they pay their bills this month.
Businesses need to ensure to treat their staff in the right way as it is a challenging time for them not knowing whether they are going to have any work or money that week. Therefore, exclusivity clauses which prevent people on zero hour contracts from looking for other work should be banned. If an individual has the possibility to find a secure, stable job, they should be entitled to go for it instead of being one of the nearly 700,000 workers who have no guaranteed hours of work each week.
Source: bournemouthecho.co.uk
