Newsflash: Employment status – short-notice rates?

We updated you in our February 2017 Newsletter Government reforms (3): Employment status – reviews of the Taylor Review (launched in November 2016) which has been set up to work towards resolving the complexity of employment status.

What’s new?

Matthew Taylor, who is leading the Taylor Review, has put forward proposals that employers who hire staff on zero hours contracts may be forced to pay premium rates for short-notice work.

Mr Taylor said that an increased rate would deter “lazy” employers from exploiting their staff, while also providing them with the incentive to give workers a guaranteed number of hours as refusing to do so would result in a greater penalty. However, this needed to be balanced against drawbacks to the proposal, including making it more difficult for workers to understand the national minimum wage.