Zero Hour Contracts between Employer and Employee Unethical Solution

Question: Are zero hour contracts unethical? Answer: Zero Hours Contract is an agreement between both employer and employee. In this agreement, an employer does not give a benchmark of some hours to the employee neither the employee promises the employer that he will be working for some fixed amount of time. Though the employee signs a contract for his availability at work when required, but he is not entitled for some specific amount of time. This type of contract is mostly seen in the sectors of hoteling, catering, teaching etc. These types of contracts are very important for people who entitle themselves for part time jobs or the people who want to prove their expertise in different fields in order to explore different scopes and learn about various sectors (Ashworth-Hayes, 2015). Moreover, these contracts will give the employees entitled into it almost all the rights that a normal employee gets and also a no time boundary enhances the creativity of an individual. The zero hour contract also refers to the contract in which the emplo yees are considered a part of the organization, but the employer is not forced to give the minimum amount of work to the employer. In this contract, the employer has the authority to force on works on the employee and also can force him to work on shifts if required. If the positive side of zero hour contracts is considered, then this contract can work wonders for the common public. Because this contract gives flexibility for the individual to decide which way he wants to spend time. Exemplifying this point, if a person is working in a university and he does not like the work, then he can move to other sectors in order to explore his interests. But if he likes the work, he can take on more classes and continue the work. Not only employees, but also employees can squeeze advantages from this like in a hotel business, the employer can use the employees with zero contracts in the rush days and thus can make the unpredictability as one of the biggest advantages of the business which is usually considered a disadvantage. Another advantage for the employers is that they can retain employees who have other dreams to the present job. Moreover, if the employers want to retain some employers who cannot commit long hours by making them come under zero contr acts (Silvera, 2014). In another way, the employer who has hired the employees under zero contract, if gets satisfied with their work, then can turn them into permanent member. And also if the employees who are in the zero contract, like the jobs they are doing, they can put in their best in the job and thus can get promoted and later turn into a permanent member of the company. And if observed in the opposite way, if the employer does not like the staffs hired, then the employees can be asked to quit, and in this way, disguised unemployment will be removed from the society (Capify , 2015). Moreover, this zero contract is also a better way to get cheap labor force for the organization that sees fluctuation in labor force demand. But as a coin has two sides. Similarly, this contract has many advantages in favor of it, but it holds many disadvantages in favor of it too that makes it considered as unethical. Apart from the job insecurity of the employees, the employees also face the issue of financial instability because at one point of time they are loaded with a lot of work and they get a large amount of money and when they are out of the work, they are heavy financial crisis. This financial crisis strikes very harshly on the families that have responsibilities to carry out, and moreover, if they have kids in their family, then their future gets disturbed in a large manner. And this would be accepted if in the family one has steady income, because in this type of temporary job, a family cannot depend on the income as it is not permanent. But apart from these issues, exploitation is also mostly observed because of this (Inman, 2015). This can be exemplified by, when a poor person goes out for jobs and gets him self hung up in the sector where he is taken for the organization on a temporary basis, in order to make himself an asset, he tries to give his best in spite of less money, but in the later part of time after the employer comes to know about the weakness of the person, he tries to exploit the person for his own advantages and thus tries to get maximum one could get from the individual with minimum salary. And these types of exploitation force a large number of people below the poverty line. Another issue in this contract is the exclusivity clause. As per this exclusivity clause, the persons who are working under one company as per the zero hour contract are not allowed to work for any other company. This creates a problem for the employees who are in one company with meager salary ad cannot move to another company with a large amount of salary being offered (YATES, 2015). Though, this is not officially and judiciary approved by the governments, but the employers use this as a tool both in a positive way i.e. in order to safeguard its secrets and also in a negative way i.e. in order to harass the employees who are under the employer. This leads to employee harassment and showcase negativism of the zero contract which has been started with a positive note. In the world, as per the documented contracts, there are around one or two million employees, approximately who is working, staying under zero hour contracts or any other contracts who have same attributes or parameters like the zero hour contract. And most of the labor force was comprised of two categories of people. One category involved the poor people who want jobs in order to fulfill the basic amenities of life and make their life better in terms of livelihood. And, this workforce constitutes of around eighty five percent of the total work force present in this world and the other fifteen percent of the workforce in the second category. And this workforce consists of the young people who are working in order to get money as taking that as a part time job while studying in other universities (ACAS Team, 2015). The people who are in search of their dreams or who are pursuing their dreams and need a backup also come in this category. The poor people who become a part of this are hi ghly exploited because of their need of a job. They are made to work for a large number of hours with less amount of pay which is highly unethical. Moreover, some youngsters who opt for this type of job are exploited in many other ways in exchange of a great future. Sexual assault, mental exploitation etc. are the various ways of torture that takes place in disguise. Though zero hour contracts hold chances of being used in a way that can help the society or in a way that can prove itself as a boon, but it holds various chances of being used in an unethical manner. Not only mental harassment, but also physical harassment is also possible through this contract. Moreover, it also possesses the capability to force the families to move below the poverty line and also can put the future of children or young generation at stake if it is used in a negative way. Thus, as per the arguments that has been put forth above, zero hour contracts, though are not unethical but it can be used in a very unethical manner if intended. Bibliography ACAS Team, 2015. Zero hours contracts. [Online] Available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4468 Ashworth-Hayes, S., 2015. The facts about zero hour contracts. Zero hour contracts, 24 April. Capify , 2015. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Zero Hour Contracts. Zero Hour Contracts, 03 June. Inman, P., 2015. Number of workers on zero-hours contracts up by 19%. zero-hours contracts, 02 September. Silvera, I., 2014. Zero-Hours Contracts: The Pros and Cons of the Controversial Work Agreements. Zero-Hours Contracts, 30 April. UK Government, 2015. Contract types and employer responsibilities. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/contract-types-and-employer-responsibilities/zero-hour-contracts YATES, A., 2015. If zero-hours contracts are so bad, why are workers so happy?. zero-hours contracts, 06 December.