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
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 :-)

By the way im sitting on some POTENTIAL mind blowing political/ humane gravy that will rock the established core to the ground if it comes into being and I think the odds are very much stacked in my favour. 21 days to the outcome and counting.

THIS COULD BE MASSIVE.

Cyners these Bank holiday polls often throw up falseys just like Cheryl Coles tits.

Thought id give Hays a sexual lift LOL LOL.