Lenin Nightingale: "Zero Hours Contracts – A Recurring Theme Of Exploitation", WideShut.co.uk, 31 August 2013

What's new about Zero Hours Contracts here in the UK? Nothing, writes this contributor to the WideShut website. Weavers in the early 19th Century were the victims of a 'beggar-your-neighbour' economic system in which unbridled competition to drive down wage costs led to irregular, underpaid and grotesquely subservient employment. But, warns the writer, in case we should think that only the Few shall be affected by the Zero Hour culture...

"Whether you are a nurse, doctor, lecturer, teacher, train driver, bus driver, lorry driver, factory worker, the zero hour contract awaits. Soon, all will wait by the phone for the call to work, not being able to plan their day or week in advance; too scared to turn down work in case it is offered to someone who never does."

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