Employment Contract

1. ‘Those on zero or low hours contracts are protected by much of the same legislation available to workers with full-time contracts. Employment is a very highly regulated area of law in this country. We do not need additional regulation.’ Irish Business and Employers Confederation’. Press release, 26 Feb. 2015.

Introduction

Labour relations are concretized by various type of employment contract among whom some are more flexible than other such as "zero hours contract" or "casual contracts."

These contracts have existed since the end of 1990s in Britain, but since 2008 and the worsening economic situation, the phenomenon expands considerably in order to contribute to the restoration of competitiveness. Indeed, many industrialized countries

• Their main characteristic is the uncertainty regarding certain essential elements of the employment relationship: working hours and remuneration.

B) The status of a zero hour worker and casual worker.

For a worker to be an employee, 3 criteria must be complete. Firstly, an employee must work under the control of another, not be in business on its own account and there must be mutual obligations for both parties.

The first two criteria do not put particular difficulties but the mutuality of obligation which is an essential criteria for an employment contract can make difficult to establish if the individual is an employee.

Mutual obligation: it’s the situation where an employer have the obligation to provide work or pay combined with an employee’s reciprocal obligation to be ready and available to do the work

Because the workers were free not to work, the courts found that there was not sufficient mutuality of obligation to form a contract of service and then, the plaintiffs weren’t employee and then, they cannot pretend to the common law employment rights.

Initially the casual worker were not seen as employee, but the jurisprudence have evolved. In Stringfellow restaurants ltd v Quashie the tribunal had held that the plaintiff was not an employee due to the nonexistence of mutuality of obligation but Elias L J said that:

“There are some circumstances where a worker works intermittently for the employer, perhaps as and when work is available. There is in principle no reason why the worker should not be employed under a contract of employment for each separate engagement, even if of short duration”.

Therefore a causal worker can be an employee when working and employment rights may apply to them.

This casual relationship can be divided into two periods: an inactive period when there is no work being done; and an active period when work is being