Are Labour MPs really hiring people on zero hours contracts?

Ed Miliband yesterday revealed that Labour would implement tough crackdowns on the use of zero hour contracts, ensuring that those working on those terms get offered a regular contract after 12 weeks. They even launched an attack ad about it.

But SunNation, the new politics blog from The Sun, last night accused Labour of hypocrisy, claiming that 68 Labour MPs hire people on zero hours contracts. The Daily Mail – coincidentally – ran a similar attack on their front page. But is it true?

First of all, it is not a new story – LabourList covered it last May.

What we found out was that IPSA (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) does not record how many workers are hired on zero hour contracts, but does record how many people are hired on “casual contracts”. Casual contracts mean workers are paid on an hourly rate, rather than a monthly salary, and does not mean they do not get regular hours. It is often used for part-time workers, such as students.

This information is all in the public domain – because IPSA publish their responses to FOI’s, including this one which we assume based on the date is responding to The Sun, on their website.

A recent Freedom of Information request, separate to the one submitted by The Sun, confirmed that IPSA “do not use this term [zero hours contracts]”, and that their data “relates to MPs who hire staff on casual contracts”.

Despite casual and zero hour contracts not being the same thing, the 68 Labour MPs named as using “zero hours” are actually hiring on “casual contracts”. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they are definitely not interchangeable terms.

We can’t imagine why any reputable paper would would want to perpetuate such confusion…