‘I’m on a zero hours contract – it’s a nightmare’

“Pamela” cares for vulnerable people – she’s done so for 25 years. For the last three-and-a-half, she’s also been on a zero hours contract. This, in her words, is what it’s like.

“It is so stressful. I have to work 50 hours-a-week so I can afford to live – not in luxury, just the bare essentials. And I have no idea whether or not I’m going to get that; some weeks, I pick the rota up and I have 30 hours,” she tells Channel 4 News.

Pamela (not her real name), works for a firm that provides services all over the UK and which made a profit of tens of millions of pounds last year.

I have to work 50 hours-a-week so I can afford to live – not in luxury, just the bare essentials

She spoke to Channel 4 News on condition of anonymity after Labour announced that it would “ban” zero hours contracts, should it win the election in May.

The party’s leader Ed Miliband says he would guarantee employees the right to a regular contract after 12 weeks of working regular hours.

The identity of the company is being masked to protect Pamela. Channel 4 News has verified its reported profits.

His comments follow the Prime Minister David Cameron’s admission that he could not live on a zero hours contract – and his insistence that many people prefer the arrangement.

While Pamela agrees that it may work for some people, the “majority of people on them are not happy”.

“It’s a nightmare. You don’t know what you are doing from one week to the next. You can’t plan anything, you certainly can’t save any money.

Asked why she does not move to a new job on a better contract, she says that most places in her area are offering only zero hours deals. “It’s so maddening. The companies don’t see what stress it puts us under. It’s not as easy as just getting a better contract because everywhere is zero hours.”

‘Weapon’

She claims her bosses use the contract as a weapon against employees, cutting their hours as a punishment for supposed transgressions.While, in theory, they have the right to choose whether or not to accept any work they are offered, she says there is no question in practice.

“If you up upset them, they deliberately take hours off you. If they ask you to do any extra, you can’t say no. If they phoned me today and said ‘can you work tonight?’, and I said no, then I can guarantee that, next week, my hours would be down.

“So, you just have to grin and bear it.”

Read more: Channel 4 News Election 2015 live blog

Her employer treats her as if she is bound to work when she is told, but not to give her a contract that guarantees her the hours, she says.

In short, they are reaping the benefits of having fulltime staff, while not taking on the responsibilities that go with it, she says.

“If you say you have got a wedding, even though you’re on a zero hours contract, they say ‘that’s unacceptable, you’re working your days’.” Why, if there is fulltime work available, will they not put people on permanent contracts?”

It’s not care anymore, it’s just profit
Pamela, care worker

She is conflicted, however, on what should be done about it. She does not believe that Labour’s plan will work because companies like hers will simply work around the rules.

“They aren’t daft – they could turn round and say to me ‘there’s no rota for you and there’s nothing I can do about that’.” Nevertheless, she supports a full ban on zero hours contracts and strict enforcement of the rules because “they don’t work”.

Ultimately, she is pessimistic about the use of zero hours contracts and what it says about the state of care work. “It’s not care anymore, it’s just profit”.