[mortov]

Sounds like someone really wanted to set up a UK style '0 hours contract' where you get to avoid paying an 'employee' unless you ask them to do something and then only need to pay for the actual time they spend doing it but you have the advantage of stopping them getting another real job since they are already reserved by your 'employment'.

UK companies do it all the time - sounds like this Belgian needs to move to the UK to get the desired outcome of slaves on standby.

[rmc]

Or that the employer really wanted a 24x7 contract. "You must be available to work at any time". Which is the other end of the scale.

[ZenPro]

I think this was recently touched on by the big four supermarkets coming under criticism.

No real full time customer service assistants. Staff are placed on 16 hour contracts with single, double or quad hours randomly placed throughout the week.

If you don't come in, you get fired.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/19/zero-hours-co...

[linuxydave]

>UK companies do it all the time

Thankfully I've yet to see this in IT.