Fast food strikes threatened over zero-hours contracts

Controversial zero-hour contracts mean workers had to be available for work but had no guaranteed hours per week. Woodhouse asked officials to review the legislation late last year, amid concerns employment laws were not being used as intended. 

Prime Minister John Key said if zero-hour contracts were being used in a way to discriminate against employees then that had to stop.

'But general flexibility in the labour force is also important, because there are some people who want to have that flexibility.'

Casual contracts were a common practice, which did not require employees to always be available or prevent them from picking up hours elsewhere. 

Woodhouse told One News it was worth banning zero-hour contracts, even if their implementation was relatively low.

'We can expect to get some good advice about that to make some changes in that bill to effectively rule out those kind of punitive provisions. "Even if it is a relatively low incidence in our employment, it's probably worth ruling them out, for the sake of certainty for those vulnerable workers.'