article_snippet.sent: Tory Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC: 'the BBC should be flexible hours contracts, but only 2 per cent of the total workforce have those and those are mostly people like carers, who can't give direct time, and young people like students, so for students there is a reason for those.'
article_snippet.sent: Aides to Tory Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith stressed that job satisfaction and work-life balance for those on zero-hours contracts were similar to other workers.
article_snippet.sent: Some 60 per cent of people on zero-hours contracts do not want more hours, Aides to the minister said.
article_snippet.sent: Under the controversial contracts, workers are often told at the end of the week how many hours workers can work the following week.
article_snippet.sent: Launching Labour's manifesto for young people in Lincoln, Labour leader Ed Miliband said: 'Young people are three times more likely to be on zero-hours contracts than the rest of the population. '
article_snippet.sent: Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union, said zero-hours contracts meant 'misery' or workers and the Unite union families, leaving the Unite union on a 'hand to mouth' existence. '
article_snippet.sent: TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'Whatever you call a zero-hours contract, it is still a recipe for insecurity and exploitation, where the boss holds all the power. '
article_snippet.sent: Nothing sums up what is wrong with this Government's approach to work and how out of touch they are with the way most people live they lives than this celebration of the zero-hours contract. '
article_snippet.sent: Just a few weeks ago David Cameron admitted David Cameron couldn't live on a zero-hours contract.
article_snippet.sent: But the Tories seem happy for working people to be stuck in low-paid zero-hour contract jobs.
article_snippet.sent: The reality – that the Tories refused to acknowledge – is that for too many people zero-hours contracts leave too many people without a regular income and not knowing from one day to the next how much work too many people will get.
article_snippet.sent: The number of people with zero-hour contracts has increased by almost 20 per cent in the last year and surveys show that over half of young people on these contracts are on young people on these contracts because young people on these contracts could not find a job with regular hours.
article_snippet.sent: Companies such as Sports Direct are hiring the vast majority of Companies such as Sports Direct workers on zero-hours contracts, even though Companies such as Sports Direct have predictable and manageable fluctuations in demand and many of these employees reportedly work regular hours in practice.
article_snippet.sent: With Labour, if you work regular hours for 12 weeks or more you will get a right to a regular contract.
highlights_snippet.sent: Says only 2% of workers on zero-hours deals and most are carers .
  