Zero-hours contracts remain controversial and, last month, fast food chain, McDonald's, confirmed that it will offer its workforce of 115,000 a choice as to whether to work fixed hours or remain on their zero-hours contracts. McDonald's had previously trialled this arrangement and they found that only around 20% of staff chose to move to fixed hours, with the majority preferring the flexibility of the zero-hours arrangement.
There has been speculation that, inspired by the McDonald's arrangement, Matthew Taylor's highly anticipated review on the gig economy is likely to recommend a new right for workers on zero hours contracts to secure a guaranteed number of hours. It is expected that the right will be structured in a similar way to the right to request flexible working, with the employer maintaining the right to refuse the request for specific statutory reasons only.
The Labour party has pledged to ban zero hours contracts completely but the McDonald's experience suggests that there may still be a place for them in the modern working environment.
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