McDonald?s staff offered move from zero-hours contracts to fixed hours

20 April 2016

McDonald’s is offering staff in its UK restaurants zero-hours contracts and the option of moving to fixed hours, in a movement towards a major development in the debate about employee rights.

HR Review reports:

The well-known fast food chain is one of the biggest users of the contracts in the country, with an estimated 80,000 employees on zero hour contracts.

Paul Pomroy, the head of McDonald’s UK, said the company was re-evaluating its employment policy after staff told him they were struggling to acquire loans, mortgages and mobile phone contracts because they are not guaranteed employment each week.

As a result, the company has started offering staff the option of moving to contracts guaranteeing a minimum of four hours a week, leading to 16 hours or 30 hours.

A trial of the new system has taken place in St Helens, Merseyside, which Pomroy said had been very successful, and McDonald’s is now looking to roll it out across the country.

About 80 percent of workers in the trial elected to stay on zero hours; of those who took up the fixed-hours option, three of five went for the maximum of 30 hours.