Exclusive: Iceland has slammed illigitimate ads framing it as zero hours contract employer

The new government set out a host of changes to workers’ rights last week, among which was a proposed ban on “exploitative” zero-hour contracts. 

Despite the move, Retail Week discovered that posts for zero-hour contract retail assistant and delivery driver jobs in several of the frozen foods retailer’s stores including Chippenham, Crewe and Clydebank went live on a job aggregator via Sercanto this week. 

Iceland told Retail Week that the jobs, though still being shown on Google Jobs at the time of publication, were not legitimate and were likely scraped from vacancies it had advertised for in the past. 

An Iceland spokesperson told Retail Week: “Iceland doesn’t advertise zero-hour contracts as we want our colleagues to have the security of an agreed minimum number of working hours per week.

“The shortest contract we currently offer in any of our stores is for 7.5 hours per week. The very small number of shorter contracts than that within the business are historic in nature or have been specifically requested by the individual employee concerned to suit their personal circumstances.”

Ex-Conservative candidate Walker made headlines in January when he publically quit the Tory party and backed Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ahead of this summer’s general election. 

Walker, a former Tory party donor, said that under Starmer, Labour had progressively moved towards “the ground on which I have always stood”, while the Conservative party “have moved away from it”.

He also said the Conservatives had abandoned their basic principles and this it had “not only fuelled my personal disenchantment, it is also reflected in the total collapse of public confidence we can see in every opinion poll”.

The retail boss’ endorsement came after he quit the Conservatives last year and was not selected as one of its parliamentary candidates for the election. 

Although defended for the level of flexibility offered for both employees and employers, zero-hour contracts have been subject to much controversy, with many employers standing accused of their inappropriate use.

According to current government guidelines, the contracts “should not be considered as an alternative to proper business planning and should not be used as a permanent arrangement if it is not justifiable”.

They ”might not be appropriate if the job offered will mean the individual will work regular hours over a continuous period of time”.

Several retailers can be expected to run afoul of any ban around zero-hour contracts, including Frasers Group that still employs staff on the contracts for many store assistant roles in both Sports Direct and Flannels. 

Any flat-out ban on their use may prove particularly contentious for retailers when it comes to hiring during the Christmas trading period, as many seasonal workers have been employed on the contracts, such as those hired by Boots in prior years.