At the last Full Council Meeting in July, the Labour Group Leader, Jim Grant, had asked how many contractors used this practice but was told by Councillor Russell Holland, Cabinet Member for Finance, that he was not aware of any contracts that required the Council to provide this information.
The Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, has urged the Conservative Cabinet to find out how many of the council’s contractors use zero-hours contracts.
A zero-hour contract is a type of employment which creates an ‘on call’ arrangement between employer and employee, but because a minimum number of hours is not guaranteed in the contract the employer is not obliged to provide any work for the employee.
At the last Full Council Meeting in July, the Labour Group Leader, Jim Grant, had asked how many contractors used this practice but was told by Councillor Russell Holland, Cabinet Member for Finance, that he was not aware of any contracts that required the Council to provide this information.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development recently found up to 4% of the UK workforce were on zero-hours contracts, which equates to around 1 million workers and the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, warned that there has been “some exploitation” of staff on the contracts which give no guarantees of shifts or work patterns. Other local Councils had also been questioned on their use of zero-hours contracts with the International Business Times UK obtaining information on some councils use of zero-hour contracts through FOI requests.
Councillor Jim Grant said: “I am disappointed that the Conservative Cabinet do not know how many of the Council’s contractors use zero-hour contracts. While there is most certainly a debate to be had about the merits of using zero-hour contracts I think at the very least we should know whether this practice is being used with staff working on behalf of the council. So I would urge the Cabinet to find out this information.
Where other local authorities have shown this information, it has shown that staff who deliver frontline services on behalf of Councils are most likely to have this sort of contract. This has particularly been shown to be the case with staff who work with vulnerable elderly people, such as a care assistant or a homecare worker.
I personally am weary of the benefits of zero-hour contracts. I think zero-hour contracts have been used too often for staff who are regularly working for their employer but are given zero-hours contracts in order to have less employment rights. And I personally think staff who are less secure in their employment are much less likely to provide the best quality of service, because they are less accountable than fully contracted staff.
However, either way, I think we should have the debate and we can only do that once we know the number of council contractors who use these contracts.”