How not to treat people

[Kaz]

Hear, hear Di!!! xxx

[miasmum]

We have just lost one of our two waking night staff, so are once again up the creek without a paddle.

She was on a zero hours contract, but they gave her her hours a month in advance via the rota and they were guaranteed hours. However, she decided, on Thursday, she wanted this weekend off as it was her husbands birthday. She said as far as she was concerned she was zero hours, she could just have the nights off when she wanted. She was told no, you have to give 28 days notice, your rota is a contract, so she walked out.

So you see it works both ways, they hold the employers to ransom too

[Suff]

A point I've been making for a while mm. If you want to abuse the relationship with 0 hour contracts for key staff, expect to be abused. The longer it goes on the more the employees will use it to suit themselves. It's only bad right now because the spread of it is so new.

Nobody ever takes on what I say. Zero hours contracts are a consequence of the minimum wage. Just as the 35 hour week in France drove managerial contracts which meant that the managers did their own work plus a large amount of work which would normally have been done as overtime by the normal workers. The government thought it would be a great win, win. Votes from the workers who get short days and long weekends. More people employed by companies. End result? More managers, more unemployment, minimal wage rises and no overtime for the staff to make up the extra they were used to. In the end the French people demanded it was taken away, against the wishes of the Unions.


Nobody said it would or should be easy for the person who needs the job or for the family of that person. Yet, apparently, there is an expectation that there should be jobs in every area which match the wishes of the people and that they should be freely available.

I think I've said everything I want to say on this. It is what it is and it is not going to change. People have a choice, accept what they can get or do something about it and accept the cost. It is not going to get any easier, the country is still functionally insolvent and measures to resolve that will take another 20 - 50 years; should we have back to back governments who believe that should resolve our solvency issue. Something I can't see happening.