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Zero hour contract

Hi, I hope someone can clarify/advise, if you are employed on a zero hour contract in the hospitality sector, but you’ve not been offered any hours since January this year and there is no hope of being offered any in the near future (this information came from a manager), employment commenced in August 2021. The contract states : notice is one week after the first 4 weeks of employment, increasing by one week for every year of service up to 12 weeks, “you are required to devote your entire working time to the Company. You are not permitted to be directly or indirectly interested in or associated with any other business without prior permission from the Company” My question is - can the employee terminate their contract without it affecting their universal credit? The person concerned has contacted the company regarding work and has been told there aren’t any hours available and other staff members have been informed of the same. The employee has been under the impression that they cannot work anywhere else whilst this contract is in place
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  • Hi Karen

    Surely there is no ‘working time’ happening during days / weeks when no work has been provided? - so there’s nothing to prevent other employments etc meantime.

    The Universal Credit matter depends entirely on their rules, but presumably it’s determined by income from employment rather than by any halfbaked / moribund ‘zero hours’ arrangements such as these seem to be.

  • In reply to David:

    I would add 2 things
    I do not believe there are any Universal Credit experts on this forum
    Exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts have been unlawful for c 5 years
  • Thank you for your response, totally agree with your first paragraph. They are contacting Job Centre Plus on the UC query.
  • Peter, thank you for your response