A Study on the Prevalence of Zero Hours Contracts among Irish Employers and their Impact on Employees can be found at www.djei.ie/en/Publications/Study-on-the-Prevalence-of-Zero-Hours-Contracts.html

Notes for Editors

The key objectives of the study are:

•  To fill the gap in knowledge that currently exists in terms of the hard data and information that is available concerning the prevalence of zero hour and low hour contracts in the Irish economy and the manner of their use.
•  To assess the impact of zero hour and low hour contracts on employees.
•  To enable the Minister to make any evidence-based policy recommendations to Government considered necessary on foot of the study.

The Terms of Reference of the study provided that the study should have a broad scope, covering both the public and private sectors, with a particular focus on the retail, hospitality, education and health sectors.

Methodology
The methodology used by UL included analysis of quantitative data on working hours from the CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), supplemented with data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), qualitative data from interviews with stakeholders/representative bodies and contact with international experts on labour law and employment relations.

UL conducted stakeholder interviews with 30 bodies (13 employer/business organisations, 8 trade unions, 4 NGOs and 5 Government Departments/agencies.