Isn't this similar to what we called 'piece work'?

my friend had a zero hours contract.

Taking naughty boys to court and back.

Said it was well paid but he spent all his time waiting for calls that never came

nah that was/is when you get paid for doing x amount of work in a day .. like in factories and production lines. .

 

do more and the unions went crazy cos they negotiated the rate of pay based on what they say people can do in a day. .

 

I worked with a bloke that had once worked in factory. .he was merrily getting on with his job in the production line and at the end of the day got a rollicking off the rest cos he'd done nearly double the work on his first day than the others. . was told in no uncertain terms that if he carried on at that speed, it would mean the bosses would expect the others to do the same amount of work he had done, for the same money they got for doing much less,  and it would also bugger up any 'paid per pieces' deal the unions had negotiated and any future negotiations for 'rush jobs' being paid at a higher rates to get the 'work' done.. 

 

Needless to say he left that job asap cos he said he was expected to work so slowly he'd be going backwards and couldn't stand it . 

I'm on a zero hour contract at my language school. I don't mind it so much, but I have gone a whole month with no work before. It's okay once you've had a few weeks have horrible teenagers, to have the next week off, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who has a mortgage... or has to pay bills... or owns a car... or wants to live a life.

       
       


I agree with the last part, my daughter was on a zero hour contract when she was working at a cinema and it was fine for her because she was living at home and only had her monthly phone bill to pay for, if you've got a few monthly outgoings then these sort of contracts won't work for you

 

I just don't see how anyone can plan their life on zero hours contracts. I'm also not sure what types of people actually think they are good, the very uncertainty can't be good.

 

I don't eat at McDonalds (also known as International Death Burger thanks to Finitribe) and not likely to.

 

I don't shop at Sports Direct as I understand they use zero hours contracts alongside some dodgy sales and marketing practices.