Anyone who works on a zero-hour contract basis knows the following story very well: you’re expecting a full workday ahead of you, you’ve washed and dried your work clothes for the day ahead and set your alarm to give you enough time to get ready.
You wake up and like everyone else, check your phone, and then you see it. Your shift has been cancelled at the last minute.
This is the reality for the 1.2 million people on zero-hour contracts living in the UK. This sort of arrangement is particularly prevalent for young workers aged 16-24 who are five times more likely to be on a zero-hour contract.
The main argument in favour of this unreliable and uncertain contract is that it gives “flexibility”, but who is this arrangement flexible for? Certainly not the young workers who count themselves lucky to get through the workweek without a single shift cancellation.
In fact it is only flexible for the bosses, who on their own whims can decide if any of their staff can afford to pay rent, feed themselves and heat their homes at the end of the month.
This is particularly prevalent in the hospitality industry, where when business is slow it is not the bosses who bear the brunt of slow business but the workers.
Unite estimates that up to £3,000 of wages a year is lost by a third of zero hours contract workers having their shifts cancelled, which really illustrates the harsh nature of the system we live under.
Some call for the banning of zero hour contracts, we would agree. But it must be asked, what is to replace them?
The capitalists will always find some way to weasel money and conditions out of their workers. Simply banning these contracts will not make a real lasting end to the desperation everyday normal people suffer under capitalism.
What we need is an economy rationally planned by and for the working class. This way instead of our conditions being dictated to by these bastard bosses, we can ensure ourselves that even if there is a surplus of labour, no one needs to lose sleep, go hungry or cold.
