Minister for Business and Employment Ged Nash has said he will not shirk from tackling zero-hour or low-hour job contracts if it is considered that new legislation or regulation are necessary in this area.

Employees on zero-hour contracts usually have no specified or guaranteed hours of work and remain on call to be brought in by their employer when required.

The Minister yesterday launched a call for tenders to carry out a study into the prevalence of such working arrangements and their impact on employees.

The Irish Times reported last month that the Government would be commissioning a study into the extent of zero-hour contracts.

However, Mr Nash said yesterday the Government would now extend this process to look at low-hour contracts for those working eight hours or fewer per week.

Completed next year

He said the study would cover both the private and public sectors and he hoped it would be completed by the end of the first quarter next year.

The Minister said the study would have a particular focus on the retail, hospitality, education and health sectors.

He said he expected the successful tenderer would talk to all stakeholders, including employers, unions and employees who have zero-hour or low -hour contracts.

He said work should always pay and the study should examine how “precarious work” interacts with social welfare and the taxation system.

Asked whether zero-hour contracts uncovered in the public service should be halted, Mr Nash said he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the study.

‘Exploitative’

The trade union Siptu said the Government should use the outcome of the study to end what it described as " exploitative employment conditions".

According to Siptu services division organiser John King: "Such contracts are used by unscrupulous employers against low-paid vulnerable workers who work in sectors and industries within the economy that do not have high trade union density or where workers do not enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining."

“Such contracts are a significant contributor to the level of in-work poverty and act as an effective poverty trap. Because workers in these industries are often in precarious employment and in many cases are not members of a trade union, there is no reliable evidence of both the prevalence and impact of zero-hour and low-hour contracts. This is why Siptu has welcomed a study that will provide hard data on this phenomenon.”

He said Siptu believed the new study would “experience non co-operation from some sectors and industries”.