According to the Working Families association many on zero-hours contracts are unwilling to access existing employment rights because they often feel they do not have any right to complain of any unfair treatment they might be getting and fear that if they do assert their rights they will no longer be given the chance to work.
Also most callers to the Working Families helpline are stressed due to pay being unpredictable i.e. people are unable to predict how much they will earn in any week. Families then struggle to set a budget and suffer difficulties with planning for maternity. In some cases this may lead the worker to become stressed due to financial reasons and suffer other related side effects.
According to The Guardian, the Office for National Statistics said the number of estimated people to be employed on zero-hour contracts for their main job was 697,000.
This represents the 2.3% of all people in employment. In the same period in 2013, the figure was 1.9% of all people in employment, or 586,000.
In 2013 Vince Cable (the minister in charge of employment rights) said that zero hour contracts was actually not the problem, it was the employers who abuse them, many problems arise when companies use zero-hours contracts for most of their staff which in turn will cut their own costs and while limiting the rights that their workers are entitled to.