Wednesday 1 April 2015

Tony Wants

Or, at any rate, Tony wanted.

20 years ago, Tony Blair promised to eradicate zero hours contracts, and to renationalise the railways.

The second part even managed to make it into the 1997 Labour manifesto.

So, come on. An electoral generation later, make an old man happy at last.

3 comments:

  1. To eradicate zero hours contracts? The NHS social care and most councils couldn't cope without them. Look at the number of Labour councils that depend on them.

    Without zero hours contracts how can people have the freedom to earn extra when they wish and work flexibly? And how can the NHS or social care services seamlessly flex their workforce up and down to cope with sudden spikes in demand?

    Bank staff and zero hours contracts are vital-and they're also great for students and part time workers balancing children and other commitments.

    As the Tories have pledged though, we must abolish exclusivity clauses. If zero hours contracts are about giving employers and employees flexibility, then they must give equal flexibility to both employers and enployees.

    I agree with that.

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    Replies
    1. There is more than one way to eradicate something that to ban it.

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  2. But they're vital, not least for services that need to call in extra staff at the last minute to deal with sudden surges in demand such as social care and the NHS. Many Labour councils use zero hour contracts (perhaps you weren't aware of that). They're also vital for people who don't want to be tied down by inflexible full time contracts like mothers and students.

    I agree, however, with the Tories. We need to abolish exclusivity clauses.

    If zero hours contracts are about giving flexibility both to employers AND employees, they must give equal flexibility to both.

    Exclusivity clauses give the employer more flexibility than the employee and must be scrapped.

    ReplyDelete