Sports Direct's zero-hours contracts may, unfortunately, be here to stay

The Sports Direct founder and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley (centre), who is facing criticism over zero-hours contracts. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

For some young workers, a zero-hours contract at a store such as Sports Direct may be just the ticket. One week they grab as many hours on the rota as the can, the next they're off to a festival. Everyone on the rota is trained and capable of work. As far as store managers are concerned, it matters little who turns up from one day to the next as long as they can do the job.

That's the theory, but rarely do people fit into straitjackets fashioned for them by their employers. Even young people get ill, have children, have caring responsibilities, or simply want to know from one week to the next when they can book a holiday or meet friends and family.

They might also expect to share the rewards given to people who may work as many hours as those employees who qualify for the Sports Direct bonus scheme. But on paper, zero-hours staff are limited to a casual relationship with the employer.

And it is this casualisation of the workforce that matters. There are many big companies that will deny they offer zero-hours contracts but know that in their personnel files are hundreds of staff on four, eight and 12 hour contracts. These staff might put in 40 hours a week, but know they could be told at any moment to go home. A call to say don't bother turning up the next day is common practice.

It is the US model of on-call, casual work that gives the employer the whip hand. Unsurprisingly, in Europe, the UK is the main user of this practice. According to a study by the International Labour Organisation, now 12 years out of date, 8% of the UK workforce is casual labour, compared with 4.7% in the Netherlands.

Official statistics point to a sharp rise in recent years, especially at employers with more than 100 staff where the percentage offering zero-hours contracts jumped from 11% to 23% between 2004 and 2011.

Maybe some Sports Direct workers shrug when told they will miss out on a five-figure loyalty bonus, as a windfall enters a colleague's pocket. However, most will rightly fume that chairman Mike Ashley has exploited the weakness of the labour market to exclude them. There is pressure on him from unions and some politicians to relent.

Yet the structure of the labour market, with its lack of opportunities for non-skilled and semi-skilled workers, will only encourage him to ignore any responsibilities he might have and keep things casual.

View the original article here