One of the reasons why Britain is recovering from the Great Recession so much faster than many of our continental neighbours is the flexibility of the labour market.
An employer may want to recruit an additional member of staff but not, initially, have enough work to offer a full time contract. By taking someone on with a flexible contract the business can grow and the job can become permanent and full time. Inflexibility can prevent the initial recruitment and therefore the growth in the business so someone will have been prevented from getting a job.
Since the 2010 General Election, there has been an increase of 400,000 small firms – often just the owner working by himself. The Conservatives will do what we can to ensure that these firms can take on an additional member of staff and ensure that we have a strong economy.
Some employers have taken inappropriate advantage of flexible working arrangements and have tried to stop people from taking on additional work when they have a zero hour contract. This has been going on for years and the last government did nothing about it. In practice, Labour supports zero hour contracts but you may hear them say something else:
Labour run Wigan council uses zero hour contracts.
Labour run Bolton council uses zero hour contracts.
Labour shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, uses zero hour contracts.
Labour MPs use zero hour contracts.
Measures have been introduced in the Small Business Bill to stop employers preventing staff with zero-hour contracts seeking additional work elsewhere. The Conservatives are working to ensure that there is a growth in jobs and that work contracts are fair which is why we are doing more than Labour ever did.