Zero Hour Contracts: Application, Legality, and Future Trends

ESSAY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Application of zero hour in an organisation................................................................................3
Legality of zero hour contracts in UK.........................................................................................4
Future trends in zero hour contracts............................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Formulation of a management report is usually done in professional setting and is an
important style of written communication. In the current report, the concept of zero hour will be
discussed, its application in the organisation and the legal regulations covering this contract.
Lastly, the current and future trends regarding zero hour contracts will be discussed in the report.
MAIN BODY
Application of zero hour in an organisation
JD Wetherspoon Plc is a famous pub having a chain of restaurants in UK as well as in
Ireland and is also referred to as Spoons commonly. It was the first British company to accept the
zero hour contracts as valid contracts based on which employees could be employed in the pub.
Zero hour contract is basically a contract where there is no permanent employment contract
between the employees and the employers (Kenner, 2017). As per this contract, the employer
just contact the employee whenever the work arises and the employee is paid on the basis of
number of hours they worked. The employer is not bounded in any manner to compulsorily give
work and neither is the employee bounded to accept the work that was being given to them.
Further, it also gave the flexibility of choosing or working for a variety of employers at a same
time without any specific conformity to one particular employer. At JD Wetherspoon, the
employees were given a chance of being employed on zero hour contracts basis. This proved to
be an immensely productive option for students and other part time job seekers as they were able
to do the job as per their convenience. If a student finds themselves in say ‘a tight spot’, then
zero hour contracts was an easy way out since they would be able to earn the required amount of
money and then immediately stop working. Initially this contract was termed very attractive
where individuals were comfortable in working when they found it convenient. It also drew no
boundations and therefore the workers found this an easy way in an out of the job which led JD
Wetherspoon alone to employ 24000 workers in their chain of pubs on the basis of this concept
of Zero Hour Contracts.
However, the glamour soon died out when the things became real and there were
increasing number of complexities that employees working in such manner of zero hour
contracts began to face. The first problem was that the lack of any compulsion to give a specific
number of hours as work to the employees. This led to no fixed or minimum amount of wages at
a day’s end and therefore when there was no guaranteed pay or working hours, the workers soon