Great British Recovery?

It's not just here that it is happening, Silverfish. DD2 works zero hours in Australia, usually the same numbers of hours per week and the pay is good, but obviously no holiday pay, no sick pay and the insecurity of not having a permanent contract. She also has to pay her rent and all bills and doesn't have family nearby either. Of course, she is younger and doesn't seem to worry about it as we do.

It is not a good way to go, suits the firms but not the workers in most cases.

silverfish do you have any creative skills (like knitting, sewing, or craftwork) of any kind that can be done at home and sold on the likes of Folksy ? You could be doing that while you waited for work.

you also used the word bollocks to me several times yesterday so I reckon we are even now.

Pogs , I see your point of view, you are saying that your family opted for zero hours to fit in with family commitments, but what about the thousands of people like me who don't have that choice and who have to take zero hours like I did . took on a job just six weeks ago and zero hours again but there was nothing else I could get. Ive got professional training but there are no jobs for older workers. I would love it if I had another income/lottery win/inheritance so I don't have to work zero hours. If someone chooses to work zero hours they must have another income or be like students and have parents to pay the bills.

No-one seems to understand the sheer frustration of sitting at home wasting time and earning nothing.

Sorry those Polish labourers are in London

The mystery of the Uk economy is revealed unto me. The richest in the country have got a lot richer this year (shttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/sunday-times-rich-list-wealthiest-britons-own-a-third-of-the-nations-wealth-9391634.html)
Meanwhile Polish labourers are being paid a couple of quid an hour or forced to work for nothing (file on four this afternoon)

Silverfish

Yes I am taking the side of my husband who took a zero hours job to enable us to help care for my father . The haulage company he worked for were brilliant to us.

Yes I am taking the side of the carers who helped look after him and chose to work zero hours to work in with their child care, family commitments. They could have taken hourly contracted work at anytime and the company would have loved it.

Yes I am taking the side of my friends children who, like my daughter did once, work zero hours contracts because they want to help put themselves through uni.

Bollocks was used by yourself in a previous post which you made personal. It doesn't bother me particularly to be honest but I'm b----y sure I will let it be known I didn't think much of it.

Goodnight, silverfish, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

Is that what it's like in the real world, then? Oh, I am soooo deprived...

Almost, Im just waiting for my servant to turn back the quilt and bring my cocoa. goodnight

Oh, she's gone to bed!

Silverfish, sweetheart, I notice that on another thread you say that you are "just in a mood for stirring up the conversation"

Having fun?

Ana, darling, get real and look around you in the real world

Now you're just getting silly, Silverfish...

Ok we can disagree. you are obviously taking sides in this as you seem on the side of those who are happy to work zero hours and all I'm saying is that those who are happy to do this are usually people with more than one income therefore I make the assumption that you are one of them. I don't know or care what your circumstances are but surely you can see my point or are you being arrogant too. Bollocks to you too

Silverfish

I don't talk bollocks, I am not complacent as you have called me, you are also arrogant in assuming you know my history or background.

I am sorry you cannot get the employment you are obviously striving to get. I have tried to say that whilst zero hours does not suit you and your circumstance it does suit another person's lifestyle or family commitments. Now if you find that talking bollocks and being complacent then that is something we will have to disagree on.

But which party, that is what is puzzling me.

I did not realise that people on £40,000 could get tax credits. I am sure one of my family members earns less than that and is not entitled?

Ivsnhoe where are you coming from?

I am not a top earner with tax cuts, but then neither do I have 'means tested handouts'.... so it's not everyone else.

Your statements would have more credence if you thought more about what you are trying to say instead of blindly following some party line.

I maybe a free market but very unfair, what about individuals freedom to be able to work decent hours. not all of us want handouts . at one end of the scale you've got people earning £40,000 a year and getting tax credits which are supposedly to help them work while paying for childcare etc and people on zero hours. If you are on zero hours you cant get tax credits because you need to earn at least 30 hours a week or 16 if you've got kids. In other words those that work full time get state benefits and those who are struggling get nothing just their measley wages . If I had £40,000 I would refuse tax credits. The whole system stinks and Ivanhoe if you support this you should be ashamed.

JessM. Its called the free market and we've had it since Thatcher over 30 years ago.

I haven't been on for awhile and reading these comments Pogs, I think you are being complacent, thinking perhaps you have a secure income (good luck to you) but you will have never been in my situation. After all if all of us zero hours workers were to leave out jobs the economy would be a nightmare. I have 2 serious conditions for which many people would just 'go on the sick' but I want to work, therefore I need just a few regular hours so I can work each job without being hassled by employers wanting last minute shifts. I don't believe Labour will stop these hours because it will cause a rise in unemployment as some bosses will simply sack some workers but to be honest when I see sometimes how little I earn compared to some on benefit I could go mad thinking what o fool I am for working. 'Modern Britain' what a laugh !!!

What this country needs is a fair re-distribution of wealth. Not continued tax cuts for the top, and means tested handouts for everybody else.

Zero hours contracts were previously used for very specific types of employment where it was genuinely not possible to guarantee a certain number of working hours.

Nowadays they're just being used to avoid any sort of employer responsibility towards an employee. In the Zoe Williams article that durhamjen posted, she spoke to a woman at Cafe Nero who had been called in to do a ONE HOUR SHIFT. I can't see how anybody can justify that sort of set-up, and if employers continue to use zero hours contracts in such an unethical way then I think there is no option but to ban them.

Some commentators have suggested that the measures that Labour proposes to curb these contracts are inadequate because they can easily be by-passed.

(The information was taken from the BBC website, of course - not my post!)

And my post immediately above yours, durhamjen (taken from the BBC website) sets out Labour's key measures in that regard.