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  3. Britain’s flexible labor market was a boon during the economic recession, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recov

Britain’s flexible labor market was a boon during the economic recession, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recov

admin2022-05-13  85
问题     Britain’s flexible labor market was a boon during the economic recession, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery began, allowing employment to rise. Yet one of its flexible bits is causing politicians to be worried. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labor Party, has promised a crackdown on "zero-hours contracts" if he wins the next election. The government has launched a consultation.
    Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need, with no prior notice. In theory, at least, people can refuse work. Fully 1. 4m jobs were based on these contracts in January 2014, according to the Office for National Statistics. That is just 4％ of the total, but the share rises to a quarter in the hospitality business.
    The contracts are useful for firms with unstable patterns of demand, such as hotels and restaurants. They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery—allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff, who would be more costly to make redundant if things went wrong.
    Flexibility suits some workers, too. According to one survey, 47％ of those employed on zero-hours contracts were content to have no minimum contracted hours. Many of these workers are in full-time education. The ability to turn down work is important to students, who want to revise at this time of year. Pensioners keen for a little extra income can often live with the uncertainty of not having guaranteed hours.
    Yet that leaves more than a quarter of workers on zero-hours contracts who say they are unhappy with their conditions. Some of this is cyclical. During recessions, a dearth of permanent positions forces people into jobs with no contracted hours even if they do not want them. Underemployment is particularly prevalent among these workers, 35％ of whom would like more hours compared with 12％ in other jobs. As the economy recovers, many should be able to renegotiate their contracts or find permanent jobs.
    But the recovery will not cause unwanted zero-hours contracts to disappear. Some workers will never have much negotiating power: they are constrained by geography, family commitments and lack of competition for their skills among a small number of big employers. Zero-hours contracts make it easier for employers to abuse their labor-market power. Some use them to avoid legal obligations such as sick and maternity pay. Workers are penalized for not being available when requested. And some contracts contain exclusivity clauses which prevent workers from taking additional jobs. These can harm other employers as well as workers, and actually reduce labor market flexibility. That, at least, is worth doing away with.
Zero-hours contracts are characterized by their________.
选项 A、reliability and popularity
B、flexibility and instability
C、stability and sustainability
D、adaptability and universality
答案B
解析 细节题。定位到第二、三段。第二段首句说：Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need, with no prior notice. 意思是：零时工合同政策允许公司雇佣工人的时间根据他们的需求可长可短，而不需要提前通知。该句暗示了zero-hours contracts的特点是“灵活”。第三段首句说：The contracts are useful for firms with unstable patterns of demand，such as hotels and restaurants. “零时工合同对需求模式不稳定的公司十分有用，比如酒店和餐馆。”其中unstable一词明确指出zero. hours contracts的第二个特点是“不稳定”。接着分析选项。A项reliability and popularity“可靠性和流行”；B项flexibility and instability“灵活性和不稳定性”；C项stability and sustainability“稳定性和可持续性”；D项adaptability and universality“适应性和普遍性”。故本题答案为B项。
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