April 10, 2015 4:00pm by David Farrar

Restaurant Brands scraps zero hour contracts

Workers at KFC, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut will be guaranteed hours of work as their zero hours contracts are to be abandoned by the company which owns the fast food chains.

Restaurant Brands has committed to end zero hour contracts by July, in a collective agreement struck with Unite Union.

Under the controversial contracts, workers had to be available for work but had no guaranteed hours per week.

Unite Union said its bargaining team unanimously supported the proposal, which guaranteed a worker at least 80 per cent of the average hours they had worked over the three-month period.

This is a good thing.

Where an employer has regular guaranteed work and hours, they should try and provide some certainty to staff – especially when the staff have to be available for work.

But this doesn’t mean that zero hour contracts should be outlawed – far from it. Not all industries and employers are the same.

Negotiation is the way you deal with these issues, not one size fits all laws.