Here's How The Abolition Of Zero Hour Contracts Could Impact Young Workers

People have reacted had a mixed reaction to the news that Leo Varadkar plans to abolish zero hour contracts.

Ibec has called the potential decision 'disproportionate', saying that it will have an adverse effect on employers and others have taken to twitter to voice their concern:

Best believe if they banned zero-hour contracts a lot of people would lose their jobs too, still needs to be done.

— Paul Gibbins (@paulgibbins) September 22, 2017

a zero hour contract is an agreement about terms of work, should the requirement for work arise. Is it sensible to ban this?

— CondenserMike (@CondenserMick) September 22, 2017

Patricia King, General Secretary of the Irish Congress Of Trade Unions (ICTU), praised the Taoiseach's decision to abolish the protocol:

While the proposed bill has not yet been published and will undoubtedly require further amendment, the overall legislative intent is positive."

Left unchallenged, precarious work practices and zero hour contracts create downward pressure on employment standards across the economy and create intolerable uncertainty over hours and earnings for thousands of workers.

In response to IBEC, King said that the news would only be detrimental to bad and exploitative employers :

Ultimately, the only beneficiaries from increased casualisation in the workforce are bad and exploitative employers. Good employers have nothing to fear from these proposals.

Speaking to College Times the Communications Officer for the ICTU Macdara Doyle, said that the legislation, should it be properly framed, would help workers young and old with many aspects regarding their work:

[It] should act to set a baseline in terms of standards and give workers young and old far more certainty about their hours of work, their levels of pay and general working conditions. In short, it should raise standards across the workforce and end practices where people do not know from day to day how many hours work they will have or how much they might earn from week to week.