‘Benefits’ in zero-hour contracts

Two lawyers are saying that zero-hour contracts can be beneficial.

Attorneys Ella Hoyos, who worked in human resources, and Michelle Russell, who specialises in employment law, said that not everyone might be interested in the full-time work.

They were responding to general secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Toni Moore raising the alarm over what she called the trend by employers of using zero-hour contracts to have workers at their beck and call.

“There is a new trend that we see emerging, where it isn’t just that they’re giving you a job only for six months at a time, or three months at a time but it’s a new trend called zero-hour contracts . . . . You know how you can get a contract that gives you 35 hours or 40 hours, or Monday to Friday or any five days out of seven or whatever? A zero-hour contract gives you no hours,” she said, adding this placed workers in a bind as they had no idea when they would be called to work.

However, Russell said that 99 per cent of her practice was employment law and she has not come across any cases involving the contracts to substantiate Moore’s concerns. She described her statements at Saturday’s BWU annual delegates conference as an “over-simplification”.

“The way it has been explained in the article is an over simplification by focusing only on the fact that there is no minimum number of hours, without adding the fact that as an employee you will be protected by labour legislation or that this flexible arrangement can be beneficial to a certain type of worker who only wants to do part time work.

“It was a little too reductive because employment is a voluntary relationship. If you don’t like it, leave it, find something else. It may prove beneficial. Do we want it to be widespread? Probably not, but I don’t know that demand for it would be wide enough for it to become widespread,” she told the DAILY NATION.

It would make sense, she said, if an employer did not guarantee a minimum number of hours or pay, that the employer could not bar the employee from seeking other work.

“If the contract says we can call you at will and it is your choice whether you come or not but in between we don’t control you, then there is no real disadvantage to the employee because an employment relationship is a voluntary contract. Nobody can be forced into an employment relationship; that was slavery.

“So I can only imagine that the workers who choose to go for zero-hour contracts choose to do so because they are comfortable at the very least for the time being,” she said. 

Russell stressed that as long as the person is an employee, he or she is protected by labour laws.

“So it doesn’t matter if it is zero hours or no minimum hours, so long as they have worked under that arrangement for more than a year, they are protected by the Employment Rights Act. As long as they work under that arrangement for three months or more, even if they are terminated, they would be entitled to a portion of holiday with pay or payment for untaken holiday under the Holidays With Pay Act.”

Meanwhile, Hoyos said Moore’s comments seemed to be premised on the presumption that the modern worker (the millennial generation, Generation Z and those coming after) was interested in committing to an 8-4 or 9-5, 40-hour work week.

“Some employers are finding that these younger workers are inclined to prefer flexibility to pursue multiple interests, and be more creative and to undertake several different activities for pay rather than an unrelenting fidelity to one traditional job,” she said. 

She explained that those selling services under such arrangements had the advantage of flexibility and control over their time, but also disadvantages of uncertainty, a lack of security, unsteady career progression and potential stress-related issues.

“For the entity purchasing the services under these arrangements, the upside is flexibility, a pool of resources to draw on and responsiveness. On the downside there is uncertainty regarding availability, service delivery and quality may be impacted and the arrangements may present management challenges,” she said.

Hoyos also pointed out the law has circumscribed the relationship of employer/employee and those in authority ought to have foreseen that the purchasers of labour would be forced or minded to become more circumspect in the discipline of manpower to avoid redundancy in their workforce.

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