Zero-hours Contracts in UK – Save the country from eurozone levels of unemployment’

Business groups defend companies who use zero-hour contracts after new figures reveal 697,000 people in the UK are on them

Business groups have defended companies using zero-hours contracts, arguing that they have protected the UK from the high levels of unemployment seen on the continent.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) both spoke out on Wednesday after figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that 697,000 people, or 2.3pc of the workforce, are on zero-hours contracts.

Use of the contracts, which do not guarantee working hours with a company, has become a key political issue in the run-up to the general election, with Labour leader Ed Miliband calling for them to be banned.

However, business groups said the flexibility the contracts offer workers and businesses is an asset to the UK economy.

“For hundreds of thousands of workers and employers these contracts represent an extremely attractive proposition,” Christian May of the IoD said.

“A flexible labour market, of which zero-hours contracts are a vital component, has protected the UK from European levels of unemployment. The alternative is a rigid labour market and high unemployment.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Zero-hours contracts ‘save UK from eurozone levels of unemployment’ – Telegraph.