Zero hours contracts have enjoyed a dubious reputation over the last couple of years and McDonald’s was one of the large employers who used these contracts for many, circa 80,000, workers. They have announced that workers will be offered guaranteed minimum hours contracts of 4, 16 or 30 hours per week.
Many employers use such contracts, including the NHS Trusts which run their “bank” payrolls as a form of temporary workers agency for permanent employees who want to have the opportunity of working additional hours.
However staff who do not have other permanent work struggle to get loans, mortgages and mobile phone contracts because they are not guaranteed employment each week.
The move comes after McDonalds was targeted by fair-work protestors, with campaigners from Fast Food Rights and Better Than Zero recently dressing as clowns and demonstrating outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Glasgow over its use of zero-hours contracts.
