Report: Zero Hour Contract Debate and Personal Skill Reflection

This report details a debate against zero-hour contracts, arguing that they offer instability, lack of benefits, and potential for exploitation compared to regular employment. The author reflects on the skills developed through participation in the debate, including enhanced knowledge acquisition, increased confidence in public speaking, improved communication abilities, critical thinking, and creativity in formulating arguments. The report concludes that debating is a valuable tool for personal and professional development, fostering essential skills applicable in various contexts and providing insights into complex issues like zero-hour contracts. Desklib provides this assignment as a resource for students.

Topical Debate and
Reflection

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Debate against Zero hour contract..............................................................................................3
Reflection on the skills which have been developed during the debate .....................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Debate is about having the discussion on the topic which includes the for and against in
which the individual talks and shares the thoughts(Howell, 2020) (Lawless, 2018). The
viewpoints of the individual are shared and this can happen in the meetings, in the academic
institution and in other places. The debates have the discussions about the data, theoretically
discussing the topics and the statistics which are presented to share the topic. The debates can be
in the form on informal or in a formal way but for the students the debates are always made in
the formal way. The topic which has been taken for the debate is the “Zero hours contract” in
which the work is not given on the basis of the work hours which the individual has spent but it
is being paid on the basis of the work which has been done by the individual. It can be called as
the contract between the employer and the employee in which the employer does not provide any
guarantee on work hours guarantee they are just being provided the work. The debate will be
explained on against the topic of Zero hours contract.
MAIN BODY
Debate against Zero hour contract
Zero hour contract is that contract in which the fixation of hours is not made and the
employee gets the payment on the basis of the work done. The zero hour contract is not a legal
term and is not accepted universally and is just considered to be as the arrangement of the casual
working. The zero hour contract is beneficial for only those jobs in which the extra work needs
to be done by employing the people. But the main difficulty in zero hour contract is that as there
is no fixation of the work hour for the employees and on this basis they might be given the less
amount of salary and the work which has been made is over that cost.
The other main problem with such type of work is that it might not be possible that the
jobs for such work are vacant because the zero hour work is given when there is a peak or high
demand of products of any business(Wolfram, 2019). Also the income which is provided in the
Zero work hour is also not fixed because it can vary on an everyday basis and the salary which
the person is receiving is also not permanent. The employees who are on the regular basis gets
the extra benefit which includes the extra sick leave, such other benefits which the part time

worker or the employee will not receive. Not only this in some place it has also been seen that
they does not get the respect and the appreciation in their work because they are just being
considered as the person as a part time workers.
In many places whether the person is working in a company or working in a business
they can get the work in short time or without notice which might be extra for them. At that time
they will be getting the extra payment for this but they will socially get cut out from the life. The
employee while working on the basis of zero hour contract will not get any extra time to plan
anything because the work which is given is always uncertain at can be given at nay point of
time(Fenton, 2018). The zero hour contract can be flexible at the starting time but for the longer
process zero hour contract cannot be considered as the job which is flexible.
People who are working in the zero hour hour are facing the problem of communication
as they are working with new people in a very frequent basis and on the same side they have to
work with different people. For the companies or the business in which the employees are
working they might face the issue of trust and loyalty of the employees because they also know
that they are not for the longer period of time. For this reason it is seen that the organisations
have to face the problems afterwards when the employee has left the job. It is the basic human
tendency that when they are watching that the employees who are for the full time are receiving
the benefits and not them so the motivation to work hard also reduces. The hours which might be
given to the employees may not suit them as those can be the time in which the other employees
of the company are not working which can be in the late in the night or early in the morning. It
depends on the person that at what time they have to work but the time options which has been
given might not be suitable for the person(Ramonaitė, 2020). No person wants to have the
employment on the basis of zero hour contract in which the timing hour is not fixed and just the
payment is delivered. It is because it has been seen that at some places who does not have the
time fixed for the work they are not getting the payment which is satisfying their wants and
needs. It is because the individuals who are getting the salary might not be much as compared
with the work which they are doing in the workplace. This is the most dissatisfying factor of the
zero hour contract because in fix time people know for how much time have to work and in this
they can't make any calculations.
The employee on work might require the regular cash flow but it only happens when they
are getting the regular job because in that the income is fixed and so also the leaves while the

individual who is working in a part time job profile they will not be getting a fixed salary. This is
because there jobs are only on the basis of work requirements in the organisation. But at some
time it can depend that the work which has been done by the individual is excellent and liked by
the head of the organisation. Thus, while focussing on the favourable points of the Zero hour
contract there are many points of this contract which are in against. It is because the zero hour
contract is not a legal term but just a contract which is made between the employer and the
employee.
Reflection on the skills which have been developed during the debate
Participating in the debate has helped me to develop the skills in which I was not good in the
earlier time. The skills which is developed and which I will work hard in my later time have been
discussed below-
 Knowledge- While working and collecting the information for the debate I have learned
many of the things. It is because to work and participate in debate it is important that one
must be having the information about the topic which will be delivered during the debate.
I knowledge and the information which have been stimulated in me is only because of the
participation in debate(Noorda, 2020). I have developed the writing skills and the
reading and collecting information from whichever source I receive. I have compared
myself with the earlier time in which I was hardly having any knowledge and information
about the things.
 Confidence- The main aim of mine to participate in the debate is only because of the
confidence which was missing in me. I was not able to talk in front of people and was
lacking in confidence in framing the sentence and talking confidently with the other
people. The shy and introvert nature of mine has made it very difficult for me to have a
normal communication with the people(Sochorová and et. al., 2019). So because of such
factor I decided to have the participation in the debate. Self confidence is the attitude
which not only helps in setting the goals but also provides the direction and helps in
identifying the capabilities. The confidence in mine is just negligible and I knew I could
not develop and enhance it until I will do something extraordinary.
 Communication skill- Communication is the most important skill which I guess every
person must be having because on one hand it defines the personality of the person and
on the other hand it develops the confidence. The communication skills is not just

important in the academic but it is also important in the future purpose. For my career I
know that I have to give many interviews and for that interview the foremost thing which
is observed in the candidate is the confidence and the personality which can be developed
only if I will face such situation of facing people and having interactions with them. My
fear of not facing the public was from the beginning but the thing was that I was not
getting the idea and the approach as how I can improve this skill. The thing which I
developed was the only participation in the debate(Mbokazi, 2018).
 Critical thinking- This skill I have developed is not that which can be developed by its
own but my doing something or working hard on some of the things helps in improving
the critical thinking of the person and mine can be developed by participating the debate
also as I got this opportunity. I was not that type of person who can think very deeper but
the person who gets bored easily as I was lacking enough in having concentration on any
thing. I was sure that while participating in the debate I have to work on different topics
which will be assigned to me and with that I would be able to extract the knowledge and
on the other side the skill of thinking critically(Pickering and Norman, 2020). Critical
thinkers are those who looks in every aspect and make the analysis of each and every
topic. This helps to look at every angle on the topic both on the favourable side and on
the unfavourable side. I have developed the skill of thinking every topic critically and this
has helped me a lot.
 Creativity- Creativity on the other hand is the skill which is helpful and can be learned
while participating in the debate (Mbokazi, 2018). The creativity in mine was poor as I
was not that kind of person who can frame the creative sentences as the communication
skills and the confidence was poor in me. But the participation in debate has helped me to
become creative in my things and inculcating and developing of ideas.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that debating is important for the development
of skills in individual. As while doing debate the person increases its knowledge on the subject
which might be unknown for the individual in the beginning. The individual develops the
confidence and not just thinks increases the ability to think critically. The debate which is done
in many academic institution is helpful for the person as it helps in the students to gain the
information regarding the topic which will ultimately be helpful in the future. If any questions

are being asked in the debate that at that point of time the person gets to know about the
capabilities.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fenton, O., 2018. Narratively framing emergent identities in post-agreement societies: patterns
of the Northern Irish identity within the provincial media. National Identities. 20(3).
pp.235-257.
Howell, E., 2020. Post‐‘Brexit’Financial Governance: Which Dispute Settlement Framework
Should Be Utilised?. The Modern Law Review. 83(1). pp.128-162.
Lawless, B., 2018. Making the “minority” voice heard: Critical communication pedagogy and
dissent. Communication Teacher. 32(1). pp.25-29.
Mbokazi, N., 2018. Understanding land redistribution policy-making and policy implementation:
case studies form the Eastern Cape. New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and
Economic Policy 2018(70). pp.22-27.
Mbokazi, N., 2018. Understanding land redistribution policy-making and policy implementation:
case studies form the Eastern Cape. New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and
Economic Policy. 2018(70). pp.22-27.
Noorda, H., 2020. Law reform as a response to terrorist threats. New Criminal Law
Review. 23(2). pp.271-299.
Pickering, C.M. and Norman, P., 2020. Assessing discourses about controversial environmental
management issues on social media: Tweeting about wild horses in a national
park. Journal of Environmental Management. 275. p.111244.
Ramonaitė, A., 2020. Mapping the political space in Lithuania: the discrepancy between party
elites and party supporters. Journal of Baltic Studies. 51(4). pp.477-496.
Sochorová, M. and et. al., 2019. Permeability and microstructure of cholesterol-depleted skin
lipid membranes and human stratum corneum. Journal of colloid and interface
science. 535. pp.227-238.
Wolfram, W., 2019. Language awareness in education: A linguist’s response to teachers.
In Teaching Language Variation in the Classroom (pp. 61-66). Routledge.