評論
打印
Employment
就業市場
Zero tolerance
毫無余地
The problem with zero-hours contracts is not that they are too flexible
零時工合同的問題可不是時間太靈活
BRITAIN'S flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery began, allowing employment to rise. Yet one of its bendier bits is causing politicians to fret. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, has promised a crackdown on “zero-hours contracts” if he wins the next election. The government has launched a consultation.
英國靈活的勞動力市場在經濟衰退期間是一個福音，因為這既幫助壓低失業率,而且當經濟開始復蘇又促進就業。但其所帶來的一些福利卻讓政客們煩躁不安。工黨領袖埃德·米利班德承諾如果他贏得下次選舉，他將打擊“零時工合同”。政府也就打擊零時工合同的事項展開磋商。
Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need, with no prior notice. In theory, at least, people can refuse work. Fully 1.4m jobs were based on these contracts in January 2014, according to a snapsho taken by the Office for National Statistics. That is just 4% of the total, but the share rises to a quarter in the hospitality business.
零時工合同政策允許在沒有事先通知的情況下雇傭工人工作，工作時間根據公司需求可長可短。在理論上,至少人們可以拒絕工作。根據國家統計局的統計，2014年1月，有140萬個就業崗位是基于這種合約的。雖然只占總數的4%,但在酒店業務份額上，這種合同聘請的員工比例則有四分之一。
The contracts are useful for firms with erratic patterns of demand, such as hotels and restaurants. They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery—allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff, who would be more costly to make redundant if things went wrong.
零時工合同對酒店和餐館這樣不穩定需求模式的行業十分有用。這些零時工合同幫助公司在經濟復蘇期擴大規模，其方式是在雇傭固定員工之前測試應聘者的業務水平。因為一旦雇傭固定員工之后，這些員工出了問題，裁員的代價會更高。
Flexibility suits some workers, too. According to one survey, 47% of those employed on zero-hours contracts were content to have no minimum contracted hours. Many of these workers are in full-time education. The ability to turn down work is important to students, who want to revise (or sit in the sun) at this time of year. Pensioners keen for a little extra income can often live with the uncertainty of not having guaranteed hours.
靈活性對一些工人很適用。根據一項調查，47%零時工合同雇傭工對沒有最少工時限制很滿意，其中有很多人還在接受全日制教育。拒絕工作的能力對學生來說非常重要,因為他們想要在每年的這個時候復習(或者曬太陽)。渴望得到一點額外的收入的養老金領取者也可以在沒有固定工作時間這種不確定的情況下游刃有余。
Yet that leaves more than a quarter of workers on zero-hours contracts who say they are unhappy with their conditions. Some of this is cyclical. During recessions, a dearth of permanent positions forces people into jobs with no contracted hours even if they do not want them (the government has just said that unemployed people who refuse to accept zero-hours contracts could be cut off from benefits). Underemployment is particularly prevalent among these workers, 35% of whom would like more hours compared with 12% in other jobs. As the economy recovers, many should be able to renegotiate their contracts or find permanent jobs.
然而,超過四分之一的零時工合同工說他們不滿意他們的工作條件。有些不滿是周期性的。在經濟衰退期間,永久職位的缺乏迫使人們即使在不情愿的情況下也要選擇沒有合同時間的工作(政府剛剛說拒絕接受零時工合同的失業者有可能再也得不到好處)。這些工人中，失業情況尤其普遍,這些人中有35%想工作更長時間，而從事其他工作的人中只有12%想工作更久。隨著經濟的復蘇,許多人能夠重新協商合同或找到固定工作。
But the recovery will not cause unwanted zero-hours contracts to disappear. Some workers will never have much negotiating power: they are constrained by geography, family commitments and lack of competition for their skills among a small number of big employers. Zero-hours contracts make it easier for employers to abuse their labour-market power. Some use them to avoid statutory obligations such as sick and maternity pay. Workers are penalised for not being available when requested. And some contracts contain exclusivity clauses which prevent workers from taking additional jobs. These can harm other employers as well as workers, and actually reduce labour market flexibility. That, at least, is worth doing away with.
但經濟復蘇不會造成不必要的零時工合同消失。一些工人永遠不會有太多的談判資本: 在少量的大雇主面前，他們受到了地理、家庭承諾和技能競爭力等各方面限制。零時工合同使雇主能夠更容易地濫用勞動力市場的力量。一些雇主用它來避免病假工資和產假工資等法定義務。工人們正在因為之前需要他們時沒有及時到位而受到懲罰。一些合同還包含排他性條款，防止工人從事其他工作。這些既可以傷害其他雇主，也會傷害到工人；實際上，這也減少了勞動力市場的靈活性。所以至少這一項規定是應該摒棄的。譯者：張丹 校對：周曉婷
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