American here, what’s a “zero hour contract”?
You’re an employee but not guaranteed to work any hours at all?
Yep, exactly that. There are laws that say if you work more than a certain number of hours per week, you’re entitled to benefits like pension, paid holiday, etc. Zero hours contracts let companies get away with not providing those, as they’ll keep each individual staff member below the required hours, because there’s no guarantee of a minimum number of hours in their contract.
It’s absolutely atrocious, but the government spins it to make it sound like a benefit by saying you have extra time, you can lead a flexible life. What it means in reality for most people is that they need multiple jobs and still get no benefits that a full time job would provide.
In America it’s called “Full Time” vs “Part Time”.
Full Time is generally 35 to 40 hours, benefits like sick pay, vacation pay, 401K, etc.
Anything under 35 is Part Time, no benefits. But you can still be guaranteed hours up to 35, generally 20.
I don’t know of anyone here who would take a 0 hour job, unless it were a “no show job”. But that’s a different deal. ;)
