Perm contract but hourly and no work no pay?

[Frimley111R]

I was talking to an electrician who did some work for us and he was telling me he is full time but paid by the hour and has a contract that says that if they don't have work for him one day they don't pay him. Sounded really unusual, like a Pay As You Work contract? I get the idea of this and I am sure it works well for when the company don't have work but is it legal?

I ask as we're about to employ and electrician and this might be good for us too.

[bristolbaron]

It sounds simply like he’s on a zero hours contract?

[Countdown]

bristolbaron said:

It sounds simply like he’s on a zero hours contract?

Yep. Great for the Employer, less great for the Employee. I wonder how they treat stuff like sick pay, holiday pay/annual leave, pensions etc.

[Frimley111R]

He's been on it for many years i think. It seems like he's treated as a FT employee and then just has days when he doesn't get paid. I assumed zero hours but it may have predated that.

My SiL was on something similar, also in the electrical (specialist) industry. Perhaps its not a new thing, just new to me.

[38911]

Frimley111R said:

I was talking to an electrician who did some work for us and he was telling me he is full time but paid by the hour and has a contract that says that if they don't have work for him one day they don't pay him. Sounded really unusual, like a Pay As You Work contract? I get the idea of this and I am sure it works well for when the company don't have work but is it legal?

I ask as we're about to employ and electrician and this might be good for us too.

It's not at all unusual. You must have heard of a "Zero Hours Contract", surely?

The flexibility works both ways though - the employer doesn't have to offer the employee work if they don't have any - but equally the employee doesn't have to accept any work offered if it doesn't suit them. (Though in this market, if an employee regularly turns work down they may find themselves not being offered future work).

[Frimley111R]

38911 said:

Frimley111R said:

I was talking to an electrician who did some work for us and he was telling me he is full time but paid by the hour and has a contract that says that if they don't have work for him one day they don't pay him. Sounded really unusual, like a Pay As You Work contract? I get the idea of this and I am sure it works well for when the company don't have work but is it legal?

I ask as we're about to employ and electrician and this might be good for us too.

It's not at all unusual. You must have heard of a "Zero Hours Contract", surely?

The flexibility works both ways though - the employer doesn't have to offer the employee work if they don't have any - but equally the employee doesn't have to accept any work offered if it doesn't suit them. (Though in this market, if an employee regularly turns work down they may find themselves not being offered future work).

Yes, I know what ZH contracts are (as you can see in the post directly above yours).

They seem a fairly new thing (recent years) but perhaps they aren't and were just not publicised before that.

[38911]

Frimley111R said:

Yes, I know what ZH contracts are (as you can see in the post directly above yours).

They seem a fairly new thing (recent years) but perhaps they aren't and were just not publicised before that.

Nah, they have been around decades and have been frequently been in the news headlines. There’s even been Panorama type documentaries on them because some employers abuse them.

They are quite prevalent - something like 5% of all employment contracts are ZH. Widely used in many sectors especially Healthcare, Education, Retail, Hospitality, Construction and Trades.

[StevieBee]

Zero Hour Contracts get a bad press but can suit both the employer and employee very well. It comes down to how the company manages them. Some abuse it and this is where the negative coverage comes from but then some employees abuse it too.