Different Forms of Employment Contracts: Permanent, Part-Time, Zero Hour, Fixed Term

This article discusses the various forms of employment contracts, including permanent, part-time, zero hour, and fixed term contracts. It explores the advantages and disadvantages for both employers and employees. Examples from Lucky Goldstar (LG) and Asda are provided to illustrate the different practices adopted by organizations.

HR MODULE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Different forms of employment contract.........................................................................................3
Permanent full type contract .......................................................................................................3
Permanent part-time contract.......................................................................................................5
Zero hour casual contract.............................................................................................................6
Fixed term temporary contract ....................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to the practice of managing people which encounter
for better performance of employees. It is the strategic approach to better and effective
management of people in company as it helps business to gain competitive advantage over its
competition. Employment contract is an agreement in writing between an individual/ employees
which covers the working relationship of employer and employee where it clearly lays down
various obligation and responsibilities on part of employer and employees. Lucky Glodstar (LG
is a Korean based multinational company which provides wide variety of products in range of
electronic goods such as Mobiles , refrigerators, TV, washing machine and various other. Asda is
Multinational chain of supermarket which is based out of UK that provides wide variety of
products in range of beauty, food, electronics, clothing, homewares and others.Present report will
brief on aspect of various forms of contracts of employment in an organisation, with its
advantages and disadvantages to both employer and employees and will present clear examples
of practice used by organisation for mix of contractual model to suit there unique needs of
company.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Different forms of employment contract
Permanent full type contract
It refers to the contract in company where employment has no end date, employment
continues until either the employer of company let employee go or condition arouse where
employees quit there job. This is opposed to temporary contract that has fixed end date where
unless new contract is signed by employees or individuals employment ends on that date. Unlike
fixed- term or casual contract permanent contract is defined as contract that will not expire, and
will remain valid until employer and employees of company chooses to end up there relationship
of employment (Paul, Darity , Hamilton, 2018). This contracts are often called as indefinite
contract as it is never predictable how an organisation will function and accounts to its
relationship between employer and employees as it is based on uncertain grounds. Employers

tend to invest there resources in permanent employees by actively searching and recruiting top
high end talent, training and integrating them into the organisation and offering various
substantial benefits .
There are many advantages and disadvantages of permanent full type contract for both
employer and employees such as it helps employees to provide job security where the stability of
having job that is permanent is very appealing, it eases there minds and allows them to invest
there emotion in business which improves morales and boost up employees' engagement at
workplace (Piwowar-Sulej, Bąk-Grabowska, 2020). Permanent full type contract benefits
employees by providing various health insurance, fixed compensation, incentives and various
other things which in turn helps its employers to derive better performance from its employees
as a result they will be highly focused as they derive satisfaction from there job which helps in
retention of the same. It also adds to career development opportunities where permanent
contract shows employees that this isn't just a job, but career from them where they have
opportunities to work with the same organisation over the years, it ensures helps employers to
ensure and invest in employees who will contribute and build towards the future of company.
Various disadvantages of this type of contract for both employer and employees is it
incurs greater liability where it provides clarity by outlining various terms of contract, it also
makes employers liable for greater damages of they violate on condition led in contract such as
not providing fair and equal compensation to its employees, inculcating culture of abuse and
various others, whereby employee are also liable to the same where it states several liabilities of
conducting there roles and responsibilities as laid down by the company. The Biggest
disadvantage is that it has increased more administrative work as it leads on path of employers to
organise more work such as health and safety measures, retirement plans and various others
which increase load to employer or company. Disadvantage of employees in case of permanent
full type contract is that they are associated to company for several years whereby they do not
encounter to searching new opportunities in market leading to serve same organisation for years
where they lack opportunity to grow and develop there career
Permanent work contract is meant to lay the groundwork for long and fruitful relationship
which covers various points such as job title, job design, bonus, base compensation, termination
and various other things

Permanent part time contract
A permanent part-time contract is contract employer employs employees who work
ongoing and regular hours, but fewer hours a week than employees who are working full-time
and devoting major portion of time as compared to part-time employees. A part-time contract
enables employees to work fewer contracted hours as a fulltime employees, it suggests that
employees hold permanent position and their contract or agreement contains as many details as
possible as there full time counterpart. It states that number of hours they are scheduled to work
per week should and are clearly visible within the terms of contract and agreement, but in this
case employees are laid down with options to work for overtime, if and when employees desire
to do which in turn helps in building relationship more effective and productive between
members (Dex, McCulloch, 2016). There are various benefit of part time contract as it allows
employees with flexible working hours which allows them to fit there work in accordance with
the commitments they make and various opportunities for employees to try out for new job roles
without giving upon the vast amount of time on particular job which in turn helps employees
with the process of developing and learning new skills and knowledge by working on various
part-time contracts which also leads to generating high income from different sources.
Permanent part-time employees are granted with entitlements which includes sick leaves, annual
leaves depending upon there hours of work, In this part- time employees are also guaranteed
ongoing employment or can be said as fixed term contract where the are also required to give or
receive notice to end of their employment and can be referred as termination of the same
(Dieckhoff, 2016). A permanent part-time employees has permanent schedule, works
consistently and has assigned task from company on a decreased schedule as compared to
fulltime employees. It usually means anything up to hours less than permanent fulltime
employees which depends upon company position of carrying task. They usually receive the
same benefits as compared to fulltime employees but at reduced rates, based on hours they work
(Kelle, Simonson, Gordo, 2017).
Advantages of part-time contract is that it helps in retaining valued employees who may
not be able to, or desire and want to, work fulltime with the company. It helps in enabling an d
reducing cost for employers without reducing staff members as it encounters to flexible schedule
of working which helps in ensuring work life balance which in turn enhances employees morale,

commitment and productivity that also helps employers to cover busy period of demand more
efficiently.
Disadvantages of pat time contract is it may create various difficulties in coordinating
projects, scheduling meetings and various others as it related to different working hours for
different employees where it is hard for employer to account and coordinates efforts on different
schedule. It could also negatively affect employees career advancement when they adapt to work
part-time which as a result will lead to loss of majority of there valuable time on usefulness
things. (Relja, Popovic, Marasovic, 2019)
Zero hour casual contract
It is a contract between employer and employee by which employer is not obliged or
accountable to provide any minimum working hours and by which worker is not also obliged to
accept any work offered. Employees may sign an agreement to be available for work as and
when it is required by them, so that no particular number of time or hours of work are being
specified. These contract are often used in catering and hotels, agriculture, healthcare,
educational, promotional events majorly. These contracts are used to get enabled via on- call
scheduling. This contracts are sometimes referred to as casual contract which may refer to as
employees not require accepting any employment hours or time being offered to them. It states
that however employer is under no obligation to offer work, as those who turns down the shifts
may get fewer opportunities in future as employers are attracted to those who accept hours being
offered to them more productively.
Advantage of this contract is it helps in saving money as business is not obliged to as
many benefits as it offers to fulltime employees as it can lead to increase or decrease in size of
there workforce quickly to meet the changing demands. It helps in productivity, workers
retention and improved quality of work (Koumenta, Williams, 2016). Zero hours contract to
meet with the workload fluctuations, where it needs more employees during certain season to
cver various events. Workers in Zero hour contract have flexibility in greater say over when they
work which leads to fix and fit work around other commitments.
Disadvantage of this contract is that there is unpredictability on side of both employer
and employees as under this contract workers usually don't usually have to accept the work as it
is on risk where it may not be able to find anyone available to work which employer needs to get
done. It is tough to do financial planning on this contract, which can create state of permanent

uncertainty. It also leads to lack of control over the employees or workers as an individual
employer can't stop zero hour employee to work for another employer which can even be its
competitors, which states law is on there side if employers treats them unfairly (Ravalier, 2019).
Fixed term temporary contract
This contract is referred as which states that employer of company hires as employee for
specific period. In most of the cases it is of years but it can be renewed after the term expires
depending upon the requirements of employers regarding its employees. This contract regard
payment or payout which is fixed in advance and is being not altered till the term expires. This
contract are not given on routine jobs, usually given for jobs that are temporary in nature. This
cannot be used to replace if existing employees are on long leaves. These are contracts which are
duly signed by both the parties and which are for specific period. Like every other contract this
contract too has provision when employer can terminate the contract on certain grounds which
can lead to violation of policies before the due date. This could be reasons such as non
performance of employees, individuals committing fraud and various others. It is being
generally being found that fixed term employees are not entitled to get as many benefits as
employees who are under permanent pay roll (Kiersztyn, 2016).
Advantages of this contract is it provides with the income stream while the efforts for real
time job search continues, which provides individual with testing a employer, job , company and
industry and take decision for its future. It helps individual to gain experience and filling up the
gap for its next best desired job which also adds to contribution to good resume and increases
chance for getting better opportunities for career development (de Matos, Parent, 2016). It helps
employer to save lot of efforts in terms of recruiting new employees as employers are known
with individuals strength and weakness which also leads to employer in saving cost and time in
training where existing fixed-term contractual individual can be provided with the opportunity of
permanent fulltime by proving in there respective areas of expertise.
Disadvantage of this is individuals may not find prospect of short or fixed contract as
attractive as a permanent job. It carries a higher rate of pay to attract the right candidate for a
short term vacancy as individuals miss out other benefits which are typically offered under a
permanent role, which leads to delay in getting work done for employer as a result of
vacancy/position being not fulfilled .

TASK 2
There are different practices why the below 2 mentioned organisations adopts to different
form of contracts of employment.
Lucky Gold-star (LG) adopts of Permanent full time employment as it helps company
to meet to its day to day functioning of business and meet the challenging task which comes in
there way to support smooth functioning of business operations. It helps companies in meeting
long term goals and project whereby it employs individuals who take charge over the same for
the completion of projects in various business dynamics and helps in support for growth and
development of LG. Lucky Gold-star accounts to this by hiring employees who are skilled and
talented and by which company gets valuable insights about what are needs and wants of its
potential customers which can be satisfied by its permanent talented employees which as a result
will help company in getting competitive edge and winning in marketplace (Arestis, Ferreiro,
Gómez, 2020). It also helps companies in protecting confidentiality of various business strategy
and operation as both the parties' employer and employee sign and agree on various terms which
are highly confidential and which are being followed to support companies' success which
cannot be given to fixed term employees or other contractual employment as they are for fixed
term which is uncertain and can also lead to danger to privacy of business which is not in case of
this type of contract.
Lucky Gold-star adopts to Zero hour casual contract in various approaches, majorly to
this is when it accounts to various promotional and product launch events such as TV, fridge,
refrigerators and various other whereby it employs free-lancers. Independent workers who take
on the responsibility of completion of projects that counts to success of events as company hires
skilled and talented workforce who contribute in making such events memorable and reaching to
wide range of customers all across (Allmer, 2017). Lucky Gold-star also adapt to this contract
when it comes to the unexpected absence of exsiting employees due to varied grounds of reasons
such as holidays, marriage, some trips and various others. This is adopted by the company to
expand and get more flexibility to employees who are looking for part-time association with
company. It helps in meeting business dynamics when there is high demand of LG products and
services where it increases employees staff to meet the needs and wants of its potential
custiomers.

Permanent part-time employees are those who comes and works regularly at Asda
supermarket but comparatively for fewer hours a week than fulltime employees. The employees
in permanent part-time contracts works for less than 34-38 hours a week and they also have a
regular pattern of hours (Lu. and Chen, 2018). Employees who are with permanent part-time
contracts with Asda are given annual leave, sick leave on pro-rata basis as per the hours worked.
Asda uses permanent part-time contracts as they get various benefits of this contract such as:
Asda can hire these type of employees at comparative low cost and can make the work as per
flexibility of the organization. As people who are retired or students who can take out time, their
time can be utilized and also they will be paid. These permanent part-time employees offer
organization a wealth of life experience and talent. These employees help the organization to
keep up with demand and can also take some pressure off, of the existing employees. Asda can
also get a diversified employees who can speak to the diverse demographic of your customer
base (Cassidy, Parsons, 2017).
Asda also uses 'fixed term' temporary contracts, in this type of contracts Asda hires
employees for a specific period and this contract can be renewed after the expiration of the term.
In this type of contacts the payment is fixed in advance and is unaltered until that contract
expires. These are used for a specific purpose to complete a project but these employees cannot
replace the existing one. These contracts get expired on expiry of the term or on completion of a
particular task or on occurrence or non-occurrence of a specific event (Brüll, 2019).
These contracts are used by Asda to provide certainty and greater flexibility than the
permanent one as the organization can respond to changes in demand and seasonal fluctuations.
These employees will also be protected from unfair dismissal or unfair treatment etc.
they also enjoy the same statutory and common-law rights as other employees which are against
discrimination. Asda also uses this type of contract as a probationary period to observe
employees work like how they fit into the organization. These employees are also a substitute
when the permanent fulltime goes on maternity leave or long term sickness leave.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that there are different forms of contracts like permanent full-time in
which more hours are worked by employees, permanent part-time in which comparatively fewer
hours worked than full-time, zero-hours casual contracts in which employer is not obliged to
provide any minimum working hours and also worker is not obliged to accept work as and when
required, and fixed-term temporary contracts in which employees for a specific period and this
contract can be renewed after the expiration of the term and what mix of these contracts LG and
Asda enter into. Also proper analysis of these contract is being done and the ways and reason
behind adopting these mix of contracts by and Asda. Light is also put upon the comparison
between all these forms of contracts.
REFERENCES
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BIVARIATE EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS. Academia Economic Papers.46(2).
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Paul, M., Darity Jr, W. and Hamilton, D., 2018. The federal job guarantee: A policy to achieve
permanent full employment. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
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