Number of UK workers on zero-hours contracts surges to over 900,000

The number of UK workers on zero-hours contracts has surged over the past year, reaching 903,000, or 2.9 percent of the employed UK workforce, the most recent data from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) has been able to suggest.

The percentage of workers on this type of contract has leapt 20% compared to last year, which has prompted significant backlash from trades union body TUC, whose recent research into this matter shows that workers on zero-hours contracts earn on average 50% less an hour than other staff. The median hourly rate for a zero-hours worker is £7.25 compared with £11.05 for all employees, the TUC said.

Nick Palmer, an ONS statistician, said: “The estimated number of people saying they work on a zero-hours contract has risen by more than 20% since the same time last year. The ONS will continue to monitor and report on this trend to help inform understanding of changes in the UK’s employment market.”

Advanced, Mobile-Enabled Time and Attendance Systems – simple and very effective solutions for managing zero-hours contracts

Monitoring the employees’ working hours, especially when they’re hired on “zero hours” contracts, can prove to be difficult at times, but Tensor plc’s comprehensive WinTA Enterprise.NET suite will make everything a lot easier, while also enabling companies to actually save money, by making their HR departments a lot more efficient.

WinTA Enterprise.NET is a complete smart card time and attendance system including European Working Time Directive checking and reporting, providing total control over working rules, Access Control, Job Costing and System Security.

Our advanced time and attendance solution can hold details for up to 2000 employees, including a photograph of each person, and allows the operators to easily search for the details of a particular employee, including their annualized hours. Furthermore, the WinTA Enterprise.NET will store information on up to 1000 production or department jobs, with employees booking time against these jobs via their smart cards or key fobs.

Additional very important features worth mentioning include the payroll and absence summary functions, shift swapping support, shift premiums, secondary pay bands support and auto clockout, meaning that employees will be automatically clocked out at a specific time.

If you want to find out more about Tensor’s WinTA Enterprise.NET suite, our dedicated team is ready to answer all of your questions.