Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Labour leader Ed Miliband: We'll end misery of zero hours contracts if we are elected at next year's election
Apr 25, 2014 08:03 By Torcuil Crichton

MILIBAND will give hope to thousands of workers stuck on the contracts which have been dubbed "bonded labour" when he makes the manifesto pledge in Glasgow today.



ED MILIBAND will promise today that a Labour government will outlaw zero hours contracts if they are elected into power next year.

The Labour leader will make the manifesto pledge in Glasgow as he brings the party’s senior figures to Scotland to campaign for Better Together.

The Labour Shadow Cabinet will back a series of policies to effectively abolish zero hours contracts, which leave thousands of workers unsure of how much they will earn from week to week.

Miliband will argue that Scots workers’ rights would be sacrificed in a divided UK if the SNP splits Scotland away.

He will accuse First Minister Alex Salmond of preparing to join David Cameron in a “race to the bottom” on tax breaks for the rich and big companies, and lowering living standards for everyone else.

Labour’s protection for zero hours staff who work in insecure jobs – ranging from the care industry to the retail sector – will be used to show that social justice can only be achieved by Scotland remaining in the UK.

About 85,000 Scots are employed on zero hours contracts , according to the Scottish TUC.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith described the contracts as a form of “bonded labour”.

They allow firms to use and pay individuals only when required.

They mean that employees’ shifts can be cancelled at short notice and they are banned from working for other firms.

High street brands have used zero hours contracts with shop staff and workers building a flagship transport project have been employed in the same way.

The Scottish Government were slammed by a union leader after it emerged subcontractors on the Borders rail link are using the controversial contracts for construction staff. The Record revealed that workers who landed a job on the £294million project were told to stay at home for days on end without pay when work went quiet.

Today’s pledge is part of Labour’s referendum message to voters – that it is possible to change Scotland without changing your passport.

Miliband will argue that Labour’s promise for big tax-raising powers for Holyrood and UK-wide protection of workers’ rights will deliver the kind of change the majority of Scots want.

Miliband has promised to be in Scotland at least once a month leading up to the September referendum.

He said: “I will come here again and again with this message for the people of Scotland: By working together, we can ensure the Tory Government in Westminster is just for one more Christmas. Independence would be forever.”

Labour have been consistently ahead in UK polls for the last three years and
Miliband is on course to be the next prime minister with an overall majority.

He sees his job as persuading Scots to stick with Labour to deliver fairness across the UK.

Miliband said: “People in Scotland in the referendum this year, and people across the United Kingdom in the general election next year, face big choices about their future.

“Millions of families – in Scotland and across the UK – are caught in the crosshairs of a cost-of-living crisis.

“A few at the top are doing well but everyone else is getting left further and further behind.

“It’s a crisis that runs deep into people’s lives – how our economy is run and who it is run for.

“If we had a border running between Scotland and the rest of the UK, governments on both sides would be under intense pressure from powerful interests to undercut the other by lowering tax rates for the richest or worsen wages and conditions for everyone else.

“We’ve already seen the SNP declare their first priority is a 3p cut in corporation tax and refuse to match Labour’s plans to freeze energy prices or restore the top rate of tax on income above £150,000.

“That is how Alex Salmond says he would compete with the rest of the UK.”

He added: “The SNP can’t serve social justice with a narrow nationalism that forces Scotland into the same old Tory economic strategy that has failed Scots families and families across the UK.”

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Labour leader Ed Miliband: We'll end misery of zero hours contracts if we are elected at next year's election
sorry, but that has to be a load of codswallop
even if such contracts are outlawed (not sure how they can be), then the companies that use these contracts will just circumvent with some other device ...... i confess i don't see such contracts as being "evil" nor even especially exploitative though i confess i don't like the bit where you may be prevented from also working for another company

will this move win labour any more votes?
i really can't see it

The zero hour genie is out of the bottle, and I don't see how they can put it back in.

Millibandus is just blowing smoke up your arse.


However, if the zero hour workers were genuinely self employed, then they would be eligible for all sorts of tax allowances...basically, they'd pay no tax at all.

It will also be very unpopular with the many people that like the flexibility of zero hours contracts. They are not something new. It is just their use has grown.

They thought it would on SKY NEWS Papers round up last night.

In fact both Tories thought he was being very crafty.

And the problem of not being able to work for another company is meaning they cannot set up as self employed ie IR35.

In other words the tax payer will be subsidising their employer and Milli knows this so hes out to get them.

With a 40 plus overall majority its easy to legislate and stop employers moving the goal posts.

Widen your thinking horizons Cyners.

Your slowly but surely becoming a clone of 1 track Hays.

max - i'm not an accountant, but i think the rules for self-employed are that you cannot work more than x% or somesuch for any one employer



to revert to my hobbyhorse of courier drivers, they are forced to be self-employed and get very bad treatment and pay from their employers ..... i only know of one company that treats its drivers well (a small local one), and as a result, they keep their drivers for a long time

it really is unbelievable how ignorant and short-sighted some employers are ...... staff turnover is incredibly expensive (not necessarily visible) and inefficient, but so many companies seem to have no vision of this at all


sticky and fred are BOUND to know for sure, but i think that (most) NHS staff take something like 6 weeks sick leave a year .... this is only partly due to work conditions, but it has now developed into a culture where they feel they are entitled to this, a bit like bonus holiday

a 40 plus overall majority ...... they wish!
i'ld still bet another hung parliament is strong favorite

Manuel.

It depends on which side of the fence you sit.

====

Difficult area to "administer".

But expecting somebody on "standby" and not paying them and preventing them working for anybody else is "equivalent to bonded labour".

====

If I was retained then I expected a fee for being so!

====================

But there is a stench around zero hour contracts as being employed at the moment and reflects the reigning tory political leadership at the moment and relates back to the 1830-1930s attitudes to others.

Perhaps, after Eton you would consider nothing wrong with bringing back the old segregated workhouses.

=====

Perhaps, IDS has dreamt up his policies from the quote:

"
The government, terrified of encouraging 'idlers' (lazy people), made sure that people feared the workhouse and would do anything to keep out of it.
"

You are right about the self employed rules c. I'm not sure if the is a % fig, but you need more than one customer...not hard to get around if the peeps were not tied to one employer.


re: the courier thingy.

I'm damned if I know how they can do it. £0.70/80 per parcel wont pay for a big van (£20k plus) and it's running costs.

But there's no shortage of takers.

do stop being an ass the WHOLE time fred!

for sure courier drivers don't get any standby fee, and if they're not around when a job does happen to pop up, they'll quickly get forced out altogether ....

and yes, as already stated, i too am very uncomfortable that zero hour employees are forbidden to work elsewhere too, though whether that is a customary clause or not, i have no idea

===============

max - because very often they are intrinsically uneducated (screwed up school) and are either not easily employable or there are no other options around

many of the courier companies are also franchised, so the owner or traffic controller has the drivers by the balls and will often favour or legislate against ...... another favourite trick is to make "clerical errors" when working out pay

Manuel,

As usual, you are seeing the argument from the employer's point of view not the employee's.

You would have made a good low grade out of touch union official in the 50s and 60s.

Surprised your not voting for Nigel, a man of your own ilk!

depends which bit of my post you're looking at! :-)

I suspect you are right c.

Looking at this blog, it's hard to see why anyone would take up parcel delivery for a living (willingly)

£0.40 a drop before exes?


http://www.codforum.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10130

it's not so much the amount per drop or whatever, but the way they actually treat the drivers .... you don't know the half of it

==============

i know about Hermes - they're a typical lousy employer for all sorts of reasons

I suspect I don't c, so why not enlighten us?

Cos the drop price is absurd, what else can they visit on the hapless drivers?

if i remember correctly
hermes pay very low prices for their routes
demand that packages are dropped off within a very short time frame
are quite likely to take a route away from a driver pretty much on a whim

=============

another of these courier companies keeps taking on more and more drivers, though apparently they have insufficient work to keep their current drivers busy

the idea is probably to try to get drivers to accept ever lower rates

Hays Hays Hays, another poll JUST OUT.

Get ready to cream yourself...............

electionista ‏@electionista 30s
UK - Populus poll:

CON 35%
LAB 35%
LDEM 9%
UKIP 13%

Rekon its a rougue poll, due to Easter break.

But you can never charge ME of hiding or supressing the results/truth. I say it as it says.

Pity same cant be said of Davy, Giddeon and more so IDS.

hey sticky, that 40 seat majority for labour must be a racing certainty now :-)