Major changes in the rules governing zero hour contracts could be on the horizon, judging by comments during the recent party conference season.
The Tories, Labour and Lib Dems all announced proposals to review a way of working that has become increasingly popular with employers.
The plans vary from party to party, but there is a general political consensus that changes need to be made to the existing arrangements.
Labour’s proposals would mean the most radical changes. Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna has said that employees should be given an automatic right to a fixed hour contract after 12 months.
Other plans outlined by the party would see the restriction of on-call practices and companies having to pay compensation if shift work is cancelled at short notice.
The Lib Dems share Labour’s concerns that some employers are exploiting zero hour agreements and vowed to put a stop to “abusive practices”. This would likely mean the end of exclusivity clauses, which ban people from accepting work from other companies. The party also favours a system where employees have the right to request regular hours once a certain amount of time has elapsed.
The Conservatives are seen as the biggest supporters of zero hour contracts, with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith describing the arrangements as “positive and helpful” earlier this year.
But Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged in his conference speech that the system did need some degree of reform.
“When companies employ staff on zero hours contracts and then stop them from getting work elsewhere, that’s not a free market – it is a fixed market,” he told delegates, before promising that the Tories would do away with exclusivity clauses.
Figures published earlier this year suggest that more than half a million people now work under a zero hour arrangement, with the contracts particularly popular in the hotel and restaurant industries.