2024 UK politics - now with Labour in charge
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Well f***ing obviously. It's up to about one offer to 'grow your business' per month. It's rife in structural engineering and every example I've seen up close has had 20-30years of carefully nurtured reputation and expertise trashed in a couple of years. But if it's possible to run the business without screwing your staff and generate enough money for PE to be interested in the first place then maybe it is possible to do better than bare minimum.
Also, fewer staff working more productively is a good thing.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Theoretically isn't that just a part of doing business?
Obviously it's an issue where those businesses are care homes where vulnerable people live. But then maybe that should be something other than a business.
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Fewer staff working harder isn't a good thing if what it actually means is fewer staff giving themselves nervous breakdowns though.
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More productively is not the same as more nervous breakdowns, but it might mean more effective use of people's time. I'm pretty sure Pross has commented on his wife's experience of a fairly relaxed approach to employment.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
It might, or it might mean more people working for more money and less stress at Tesco. The flip side of unskilled labour is that it is a highly portable skillset.
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That's the system working correctly. If you pay rock bottom wages you will find it difficult to retain staff. If you are competing with Tesco for staff you need to offer something better. Yes, it is now slightly harder to offer higher wages than it was last week. Personally, I think they were nuts to not reverse the previous NIC cut and spread the pain between employers and employees. Our minimum wage carers will be paying barely any tax anyway.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
And meanwhile, there'll be less council money for literally anything else.
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Yup agree with you on reversing the previous cut.
Disagree on the system working properly. Or at least to the extent that people suffer while it corrects.
As you can probably tell it is something that I've experienced within the family and in no small part has contributed to me relocating.
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I've seen a small part of what paying carers minimum wage on zero hours contracts results in myself with my grandparents and more directly with my father in law. I think their employers can do better rather than whinging about how expensive it is to employ people.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
A lot of people in those roles can't do full time. There's no easy answer.
Like I say, increasing wages is hard to argue against, but the disproportionate impact of NIC changes will mean fewer people and worse care, because either the employer can't change or doesn't really mind.
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You can be part time and still have contracted hours, zero hour contracts only really offer benefits to the employer and keeps the employee in limbo. The only people who can be happy in a zero hours contract are those that don't really need to work at all.
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Keir painted himself into a corner with the promise not to raise taxes on the working man. I don't think that promise made a huge amount of difference to the vote but it removed that obvious option to reverse the cut in NIC when it came to the budget.
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Kind of. It's actually quite hard to create a pool of required hours and fill those flexibly though, if you fix the total number of hours. These care providers are often in the position of having to adjust hours based on independent assessments of need, e.g. by social workers, relatives.
That's a slightly different issue than the cost per hour though.
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When I was student I thought they were great. Loads of flexibility.
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From what I've read, the majority of folk on ZHCs are happy with the arrangements. My kids have been on them for years during A level and student years for the flexibility they afford. I can see why those with responsibilities / dependents wouldn't be too happy with them.
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Wasn't intended as a dig at ZHC, but almost by definition, neither party is particularly committed to the arrangement which is not a good start for a carer role.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Agreed. My kids were very realistic about the arrangements they had. They were handy, as they provided plenty of opportunities to earn some decent cash when they otherwise wouldn't be doing much bar "social media work" or watching telly, but they demonstrated that the employer just saw them as a "number in a spreadsheet" rather than as a valued employee. Flip side of this of course was that when better offers came along, there was no guilt associated with leaving the previous outfit in the lurch at short notice.
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I was ZHC for student job but frankly the flexibility was all for the employer not the employee. Couldn’t plan anything and no steady income. the flexible part was if you didn’t like it you could leave. I left but instead of giving some extra hours to staff who needed them they just replaced me on the same basis.
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Oops, forgot to mention that Dyson owns 36,000 acres of farmland.
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How are his poor kids (in their late 40s) going to get by?
I must say I am impressed by the number of people willing to go in the papers and by moaning, admit that her closing a couple of loopholes on inheritance tax has worked. The Times had a guy who has been spending all his money outside his pension to avoid inheritance tax and is outraged.
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You didn't need the money, so yes they were great for you.
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I think the point here is that Zero Hour Contracts suit some people but not others. I don't see that as a reason to ban them.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Fair enough, but the employee should have the option to insist upon contracted hours, which is what Labour are proposing. The issue as I see it is that it will be very difficult to police and I can't see that most of the businesses that employ on ZHCs being too squeemish about bending the rules to their advantage and to the detriment of their employees.
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Its pretty clearly open to abuse if an employer can just offer no work whenever it suits them.
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Students didn't need money?
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Does him being a landowner mean he isn't allowed to pass comment on the impact on smaller family farms?
You being a double home owner Brian, by the same token, means you shouldn't comment on anything to do with houses.
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I think were not tool far apart on that, in that employers around be free to offer them and potential employees should be free to decline them. Whether a potential employee or an existing employee should have a legal right to insist on one is a different matter, and as you say, difficult to police.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
If an employee is offered is offered ZHC which doesn't suit them, they can always decline the offer. That way people who are happy with ZHCs can get a contract and those who aren't can get something else.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Of course he can comment, but do you not think that the journalist might have thought to mention the fact that Dyson owns 36,000 acres of farmland, in the same way two-homes-briantrumpet might expect to have his international property portfolio mentioned?
"Writing in The Times, the 77-year old inventor and designer accused the chancellor of “spiteful” politics after Labour raised taxes on school fees and multimillion-pound estates.
"Reeves denied that Labour’s first budget in 14 years was ideological after she tightened inheritance tax relief on business property, meaning that family firms handing down assets over £1 million will be charged 20 per cent from April 2026 — below the standard 40 per cent rate. The chancellor also introduced a 20 per cent levy on farms worth more than £1 million.
"The Office for Budget Responsibility calculates the two measures will raise £520 million by 2029-30. But in his article, Dyson, who employs more than 2,000 people in the UK, says the changes are an “ignorant swipe at aspiration”.
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