The Zero-Hours Contract Debate: Is The End In Sight?

It was reported yesterday that McDonald's is set to offer employment contracts containing fixed hours to its 115,000 employees employed under zero-hours contracts. This follows a trial offer across 23 restaurants, following which 20% of employees at those restaurants elected to switch to contracts containing fixed working hours.

McDonald's 115,000 zero-hours employees represent a significant proportion of the 905,000 that the Office of National Statistics reported last month were employed on zero-hours contracts for their main job between October and December 2016. This, therefore, is a significant move. It remains to be seen how many of the 115,000 will in fact take up the offer of fixed hours. However, the 20% figure from the trial suggests that the debate over zero-hours contracts is not over yet – it is notable that 80% of those included in the trial elected to stay on zero-hours contracts (although we do not know how the terms otherwise compared).