A new Living Hours programme soon to be introduced in the United States would offer greater security for the some of the zero-hours contract workers in the country. Under this program, employers employing such employers would be required to the Living Wage to workers and provide at least four weeks’ notice of shifts to their workers.

This program has been created by charity The Living Wage Foundation and the proposal for the program would also ensure that the workers are awarded a contract that clearly and accurately reflects hours worked along with a guarantee of 16 hours of work every week at a minimum.

Major Living Wage employers including Richer Sounds, SSE and Standard Life Aberdeen have already given their commitments to the programme. These companies would be awarded with a Living Hours accreditation.

“If you treat the people who work for you well, you’re going to have happier, more motivated staff, and ones that stay with you for years. Offering Living Hours is a great way to provide workers with security, but it’s also going to help businesses in the long-run,” said Julian Richer, Founder and Managing Director of Richer Sounds.

A report on the issues published by BBC quoted a zero-hours contract worker at a theme park as saying that they would work for an entire day but could also end up being paid for just a couple of hours. An explanation of how their mental health is affected by being on a zero-hours contract was given by a former theme park worker according to the BBC report.

“Our rota for the week was sent out on Sunday evenings and, with shifts regularly changing, I couldn’t plan my week and always felt that I had to be available to work. I also worked as a ‘breaker’, which meant spending the whole day at work but only being paid for the couple of hours a day spent covering other colleagues’ shifts when they took a break. If the weather was bad or suddenly turned, the theme park would be closed and everyone sent home,” the worker said.

She continued that this resulted in working for an entire day but getting paid for just one hour of work or even no money at all. Since then, the individual has shifted to a full time job with the full time contract which allows him to save money and make plans for the entire week so that time could be spent with the family.

According to the charity, less than the real Living Wage is given to more than five million workers in the UK and they are in one form of insecure work. Among them, two million are also parents. It also further said that over one fifth of the workers aged between 16 and 24 are employed in low-paid, insecure work, and young people are worst affected in most types of insecure work measured.

“Everyone should have the right to guaranteed hours. But many workers are kept on a string – not knowing how much work they’ll have from one week to the next,” pointed out TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady.

(Adapted from BBC.com)